Grand Line's New Path
by DemonsWake
Summary: Naruto is sent to another world to do what he does best. Saving lives and causing a little bit of chaos along the way. Follow Naruto on this short journey as tries to right some wrongs in his own way. (For more background, the first chapter of my first story can be used as a prologue as I just jump right into it, which may cause some confusion.)
1. Chapter 1

AN: Hello fellow literates, new story here for any who's interested. This is a Naruto and One Piece crossover that uses the same Naruto from my other story that I am still writing as well and is my main focus. This story is just going to be a two or three-shot as I am very out of date on the recent and not so recent adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates. I just couldn't get a couple of old arcs out of my head and decided to put it in writing as best I could with throwing Naruto into the middle of much of the chaos that is the Grand Line.

I'm not putting as much detail or storyline into this one as I am trying to do with my first story and will be primarily focused on Naruto as he will be doing his own thing instead of joining a crew or making his own. If you don't like an overpowered Naruto then this probably won't be for you cuz I may have overdone it in the One Piece universe. (It's pretty much the same for my other story so I don't want to waste your time if you don't like that.)

The Naruto I use is mostly canon after the Fourth Shinobi War so if you don't like that either, I am very sorry. The beginning might be confusing as I just get right into it, but if you want more information you can read the first chapter of my other story and it will give you more background on Naruto's current standing, as it's basically a prologue for my first story.

I hope some people will enjoy this.

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Chapter 1

"Great, another jungle. Why do I got to go through another jungle?"

' _Quit your whining brat. Let's get started and see what this world has to offer.'_

' _Oh no, I'm not making that mistake twice. I'm gonna find out what I can on my own before I enter Sixth Paths Sage Mode.'_

' _Whatever you do just do it. We're all eager to see what kind of mess this world's in.'_

' _Right. Let's get started.'_

Naruto ran through the jungle to see if he could find anyone that he could get some information out of. It was a whole new start from square one again. He had no idea where he was, what the people were like, or what kind of problems they were facing. But he'd find out and do his best to make things right. That was his main goal.

As he was running he had to dodge a few arrows that were aimed at him, and when he heard the loud impacts they made when they hit something, he turned around to see that they had broke through a few trees and cracked several boulders.

"Last I checked arrows shouldn't do that." Naruto turned around once more as more arrows were shot at him as he dodged most of them but caught one that would have hit him in the chest.

' _At least you know there are people in this place.'_ said Saiken.

' _Yeah, but if they're the 'shoot first, ask questions later' type, I don't think I'm gonna get much information out of them.'_

' _You do make a valid point Naruto-kun.'_ said Matatabi.

' _I gotta do this the old fashioned ninja way.'_

Naruto then disappeared from view as his attackers lost sight of him. He didn't bother to see just who attacked him as he went in the direction he felt some potent energies come from. A little over ten minutes later he found himself overlooking a town bustling with activity. After just a few moments of observing from his perch on top of a cliff's edge he noticed one thing in particular that stood out in this place. There was only women and young girls. Not a single man or boy in sight.

' _Man, even the Amazons back on Sanctuary weren't_ this _adverse to men.'_

' _Well this obviously isn't Sanctuary. But you'd definitely stick out like a sore thumb here.'_

' _Hehe, well that's what good old henge is for! Naruko-chan is making a comeback!'_

Naruto studied the women for a few more moments just to make sure he got the right style of clothes right and he made the hand-sign for the transformation, turning into his gender-bent form with two pigtails. What most of the women wore looked like fur bikinis, so a bikini wasn't really hard for him to do. He decided on an orange one with black tiger stripes going horizontally on the two piece swimsuit along with a white cape that he saw a few women wearing as well.

He blended in pretty well and no one gave him a second glance. He spent his time listening intently on any important conversations going on around him, most of which happened in cafes oddly enough. After a few hours he learned that he was on an island called Amazon Lily that was run by the Kuja Pirates with their captain and empress being a woman called Boa Hancock. Many of the women were basically fan-girls of their empress and believed she was perfect and could do no wrong. He never really believed that anyone _could_ be perfect, he himself was the furthest thing from the word and he was awesome in his own opinion, so he was skeptical of that. He was also hearing that some of their warriors had spotted an enemy pirate within the jungle but had escaped them and they were continuing the search. He was now walking close to the docks where the Kuja Pirates were doing busy work, when he heard someone yell at him.

"You there! Stop!" Naruto, still in his transformation, turned around to see a petite woman with black hair with a long bang covering part of her right eye walking towards him. She wore an orange tank top and black panties and long stockings with garter belts and also had a white cape over her shoulders, she had a pink snake coiled around her leg and arm. "Who are you?"

"Um, I'm Naruko?"

"I've never heard of you before, and I know all members of the crew. You know it's against the rules for Kuja citizens to wear a coat like that with the symbol of the Kuja Pirates if they are not part of the crew." Naruto remembered he added that symbol to the back of the cape since he saw others have the same thing. It was a skull with nine snake heads circling around it making it resemble a flower almost.

"Oh! Uh, I forgot?" Naruto then noticed that the snake she had was licking the air in front of it with its tongue, and after a moment it started to angrily hiss at him. He could see that the woman in front of him grow more suspicious as she narrowed her eyes and had a feeling he might be caught.

"You're coming with me. We'll see what the Gorgon Sisters would do with you."

Naruto didn't want to blow his cover just yet and followed after her to meet with the rulers of this island. He was brought inside their palace and taken to a room that had the two younger sisters within, he remembered hearing their names also, being Sandersonia and Marigold. They were both very tall and the older one had green hair and her head was abnormally large for her body and he noticed she also had a thin forked tongue like a snake. The younger one had orange hair and was heavy set but she carried a giant polearm on her back, so he knew she had the physical strength to back her up. The two sisters looked up when they noticed their fellow crew member walking in with an unknown woman.

"What is it Ran, did you need something?" asked Sandersonia.

The woman named Ran that escorted Naruto here moved closer to her superior and whispered in her ear what she first discovered and that her snake had its own suspicions. Sandersonia narrowed her eyes at Naruto and moved closer to him and began licking the air as well with her tongue. After a few moments she shot back in shock at what she found out by tasting the air around him.

"How did you get here?!"

"I walked?"

"What is it sister? What did you find?" asked Marigold.

"He is a man! Men are not allowed on Amazon Lily!"

"But how? She looks like a woman, and we're on the Calm Belt. It should be impossible for a single man to get here on his own."

"I don't know how, but I do know that is no woman."

"Okay okay, you caught me." Naruto put up his hands in surrender and dropped the transformation being his usual self wearing an open orange jacket with black sleeves and cuffed bottom hem with a white shirt and black pants and shinobi sandals. Naruto eventually wanted to meet the leader of these people so being caught wasn't really a concern for him, he could escape anything they put him in anyway.

"What?! Is he a Devil Fruit user?" asked Ran.

"I have no idea what that is, but I'm pretty sure I'm not."

"Who are you?" demanded Sandersonia.

"My name's Naruto Uzumaki. And I would appreciate it if I could get some information."

"You are in no position to demand anything of us. You have entered our land without our permission and will not go unpunished!" said Marigold.

"Look, I'm not here to start trouble okay. I didn't know this place was off limits and it wasn't even my fault that I ended up here, it just happened alright! I just want some basic information that a six year old would probably know, nothing invasive or life threatening. Just basic information. That's it."

"What do you mean that you 'just happened' here? How does one just end up on an island in the Calm Belt of all places?" asked Ran.

"Um, thaaat's a _little_ hard to explain."

"No more excuses. We'll take him to Hebihime-sama, she'll decide what to do with him. Let the crew know you found a man on our island but _only_ them, keep this incident from the regular citizens for now Ran." said Sandersonia.

"Yes ma'am!"

Sandersonia and Marigold escorted Naruto to the empress' throne room, where she was just relaxing with a glass of wine. She definitely had the looks fitting of an empress. She was tall with straight, long, black hair, a red sarong around her hips that covered most of her legs except for a long slit, and a revealing red blouse that showed ample cleavage from her large bust. She also had a large white snake with red spots wearing a skull on its head as she used it as a makeshift chair.

' _Holy shit she's hot!'_

' _Careful Naruto-kun, what would your wives think?'_ said Matatabi.

' _Yeah, that's right! My wives were totally hot too! I will not be distracted!'_

"Sandersonia, Marigold. What is a man doing here?" asked the empress with an edge to her voice.

"We don't know sister. He says he just showed up here somehow, but all he's asking for is some basic information."

"Oh, he's looking for information is he? Then of course we'll give it to him, anything he wants. It would be in poor taste as an empress to deny a man such a simple request." Naruto could hear the sweetness in her voice but he could tell that she was lying. She was just putting on a show for his benefit, to make him drop his guard. "But first, could you grant me one request in exchange."

"Uh, sure." Naruto knew she was up to something but he wanted to see what she would do. She held out her hands and put them in a heart shaped gesture and yelled out.

"Mero mero mellow!" Naruto Uzumaki was turned to stone, his stone statue stood there with a confused look on his face not knowing what was going on, but unknown to the empress, the effects of her attack were not fully successful.

' _What the fuck just happened?'_

' _Looks like you got turned to stone.'_ said Gyuki.

'… _Well at least it's not natural energy that did it, otherwise I'd be really fucked.'_

' _Well you better think of something quick brat. Cuz I don't think they want to keep you.'_

"Destroy him and have someone else clean up the mess."

"Yes sister." Marigold removed the polearm from her back and held it in position to swing at the statue to do away with another of her sister's victims. She swung down hard and made contact but she and her sisters were surprised when it didn't immediately break. All she succeeded in doing was knock over the statue onto its back, but there was no damage whatsoever.

"How did that not break?" said Sandersonia.

"… Perhaps sister's powers are growing and the statues are becoming stronger?"

"Perhaps, but just break him this time. We can think on that later." said Hancock.

Marigold tried again, and again and again but it just wouldn't break no matter how hard she tried. She was a bit out of breath from trying so hard and her two sisters came closer each time she couldn't break it, to stare at the statue and see if there were any cracks. They were all in silence, not believing it wouldn't break after all this time but before she could try again, they heard it crack. Then they saw many cracks running all along the statue, but before they could be relieved that it was finally breaking they saw golden light emanating from every crack. Soon after, the stone exploded outward and Marigold had moved in front of her sisters with her back turned and held them close to shield them with her own body. She gasped out in pain as the stone shards ripped through her coat and cut into her back.

""Marigold!"" Her sisters yelled out worried for her as they removed her coat to look at their sister's back to assess the damage, but they were soon distracted by the golden glowing light from the figure now standing behind them.

"Jeez! What the shit, lady?! That is _so_ not cool!" Naruto stood up from his downed position in all his golden glowing glory and black markings that is Sixth Paths Sage Mode. When he looked up and saw what happened to the youngest sister, as she was in considerable pain, he moved quickly. "Shit, did I do that?! I am so sorry! I'll fix it!"

As he placed his hand on her back and started healing her, he noticed a brand mark there just beneath her bra strap that he knew nothing about and thought she might want to keep it in case it meant something important to her. He's heard of people putting brand marks on themselves, sort of like a tattoo but a little more extreme, so he didn't know if she had this done to herself or not.

"There, all done!"

"Marigold! Are you okay?" said Sandersonia.

"Sister, he saw it! He saw my mark!" she said in a frantic whisper but they could tell she almost wanted to cry at such a thing happening. Hancock rounded on him, an angry visage marring her face.

"You saw, didn't you?! Answer me!"

Naruto wasn't answering her because as the power of his Sixth Paths Sage Mode spread out further and further, far beyond their island, he felt something he definitely did not like. Despair, fear, anger, humiliation, hopelessness; some of the worst emotions there were. There was much of it all over the world but a large majority of it came from one place.

"What is in that direction?" he said simply, emotionless. His head was turned to the northeast as he put all his focus in that one area.

Many footsteps could be heard running towards the throne room as the doors were suddenly thrown open to reveal many of the Kuja Pirates. "Hebihime-sama! What is wrong?! We can all feel…"

"Get out! Do not come in here!" Hancock yelled.

One of her pirates noticed that Sandersonia moved to block the view of her sister's back from everyone as she yelled to the others. "Marigold-sama's back is exposed! Hurry, everyone escape!" The rest all followed suit as they yelled and screamed in fear that the curse of the Gorgon Sisters would curse them as well.

"What is over there?" Naruto asked again, this time he looked right at the empress. His eyes were showing an intensity to them that she had only seen once before; in the fish-man who freed her and her sisters all those years ago.

"W-what?" She didn't know why she stuttered, she was an empress, the most beautiful woman in the world, she does not stutter! But she couldn't help it, the power he was giving off was finally starting to affect her as her emotions were winding down. She could see that her sisters were being affected too as they couldn't find the strength to stand at the moment but looked in her direction for guidance or reassurance. She thought to herself as she was unable to move in his presence, just as her sisters. _'It can't be!_ _Is this him exerting his will?_ _Conqueror's_ _Haki! This man_ _has the qualities of_ _a king!'_

"In that direction. I can feel it. Despair, hopelessness, fear; all of the worst emotions you can think of are just lingering, festering in one area. And it's in _that_ direction." Naruto pointed to the northeast this time to make sure she couldn't misunderstand him.

She took the time to finally think about his question and the direction he was indicating. And her eyes widened slightly as she knew exactly what was in that direction, and the emotions he described were the same ones she and her sisters felt when they were trapped there.

"M-Mariejois!" Her hands immediately covered her mouth after she said it. That was not a place she ever wanted to remember, let alone utter its name. Her sisters looked at her in shock as they didn't even want to think about it either.

Naruto dropped his sage mode, returning to his normal state, which gave the Gorgon Sisters a bit of relief. He had a name of the place, but he needed to know more. He could tell that this was a very sore subject for the sisters and he would feel like a complete dick for putting them through this, but he needed to know.

"Who is in Mariejois? What is over there?"

"Stop it! Just stop it! We don't want to hear this!" screamed Sandersonia. She and Marigold were slumped on the floor hugging each other and had tears running down their faces and Hancock was nearly catatonic.

It seems this subject was worse than Naruto thought it would be. He thought back to this short encounter and thought about everything that went on here. Despite him not paying particular attention, he did hear the youngest sister almost crying when she said he saw her mark, and then the empress yelled at him about seeing it also. Then the pirates that came barging in here ran away after their empress yelled at them and realizing the youngest sister's back was exposed. So if he had to guess, that mark is definitely something that was not done to her willingly. In order to try and gain some of their trust he decided that he would heal it and see what happens.

Naruto entered a partial Sixth Paths Sage Mode as his eyes turned yellow, his pupils changed into a horizontal bar and vertical slit, and his right hand and forearm started to glow in the same bright gold as before and placed it on Marigold's back. She jolted at his touch and started to go limp in her sister's arms as she began softly sobbing into her sister when he touched her. It not only brought back painful memories as his warm hand reminded her of the hot brand they used to mark her, but it felt like he was taking away her strength.

"S-sister! My strength!" When Hancock saw this, she charged at him trying to get him away from her.

"Don't touch my sister!" She threw a haphazard punch towards him but she was still too emotional to properly focus and he easily caught it with his left hand across his body and held her in place as his right hand went back to normal as he finished. Hancock immediately knelt in front of her sister and faced her to see if she was okay. "Marigold! Are you okay? What happened to your strength?"

"I don't know, I can feel it coming back but… his touch felt like seastone. It was making me weak."

"You have seastone on you?! But how, aren't you a Devil Fruit user?" said Sandersonia.

"I have no idea what seastone is or what a Devil Fruit user is."

"Then how were you taking away her strength?!" demanded Hancock.

"I have no clue, that never happens when I do that. It's usually the opposite, people tend to feel revitalized after I healed them."

"Heal? Heal what?"

"Take a look for yourselves." Naruto indicated towards their sister's back to show them and they both moved behind her to see. What they saw shocked them as their knees wavered and they fell to them. They looked over their baby sister's back and saw nothing but unblemished skin. That horrible mark that was put on her all those years ago was gone, not even a trace, or any indication that there was anything ever there. They couldn't stop the tears if they tried as they sobbed loudly and clung onto their sister's back and buried their faces into it as part of their dark past was erased right in front of them.

"Sisters! What's wrong?! What did he do?!" asked a frantic Marigold.

"It's gone. He took away your mark." Hancock said in a whisper but her sister heard her clearly, but Sandersonia wanted to make sure she knew.

"It's gone Mari! It's really gone!"

"Really? (sniff) You better not be lying to me!"

"Never, not about this. Come on, look for yourself!" Sandersonia dragged Marigold off her feet and towards Hancock's wardrobe where she had multiple mirrors going around in almost a full circle so she can see her reflection for herself. He could hear the two sister shedding happy tears as Marigold saw for herself, and then he looked towards the empress as she stood up and faced him.

As Hancock looked at him, trying to recompose herself, she couldn't help but be grateful, but she also didn't want to trust him so easily after just one good deed; even if it was a major one. She decided she would at least hear him out. She wiped the unshed tears from her eyes and stood straighter as she addressed him.

"What is it that you wanted to talk about?"

"(sigh) I really kinda don't want to ask anymore."

The empress walked over to her snake throne and took her seat. "Yes. You wished to know about… _that_ place."

"Okay, let's just forget about that place and talk about something else. I'll be straight with you. I am… limited in knowledge about the world right now. What I initially wanted to know was what's going on in this world today? Who are the major powers, is what I really want to know."

"Are you from an undiscovered island?"

"Uh, yeah! I uh, just left my home and everything's so different out here that I don't know where to start. I've never heard of any place outside my uh, island. So I'm a little lost, you could say."

"And how did you get here?"

"Um, someone… transported me here! It was a freak accident and something went wrong and I got transported to a random place! I don't even know how to get back so I'm kinda stuck here."

"I see." She could tell that his story was off but it didn't sound like he was completely lying either. "Very well, we will educate you on what you need to know as thanks for removing that mark from my sister." Her two sister's were now standing on either side of the empress' throne ready to contribute if they could.

"Thanks! I appreciate it."

They first told him about the Devil Fruits and the mysterious powers they give to those who eat them. They told him of the three types being Paramecia, the most common, that give their users physical superhuman abilities. Then there are the Zoan type users that can transform into various animals, including prehistoric animals or mythological creatures. Finally the Logia type, which is the rarest, allows the users to transform themselves into an element, making most physical attacks against them useless. They then explained how sea water and seastone are a Devil Fruit users greatest weakness when they come in contact with it. But they were curious as to how he made their sister weak when he touched her.

"I can tell you that I definitely haven't eaten any fruit like that at all because I can still swim in the ocean."

"How did you drain Marigold's strength, and how did you even break free from my attack in the first place?"

"I used sage mode to break free of that stone shell, and by the way, that wasn't very nice you know."

"Impossible! That attack should have turned you completely into stone!"

"Well it would have, but I have experience in avoiding turning to stone. I encased my entire body in chakra before that attack hit me, but I still couldn't break out of it under my own strength. And since I was already unable to move I just absorbed the natural energy around me to go into Sixth Paths Sage Mode, and then I broke free."

"What is this sage mode you keep talking about?" asked Marigold.

"It's a form I can take that will augment my abilities making me stronger, and increasing my defense."

"Armament Haki too!" said a shocked Hancock, realizing he can utilize all three forms of Haki at such a young age, at least as far as she knows.

"Haki? What is Haki?"

"Haki is a form of spiritual power that can be used by anyone if their will is strong enough. There are three forms of Haki, and two forms can be trained to become stronger but the third form is only ever found in a select few. If what you say is true about that sage form you spoke of, then from what I have seen, you are able to use all three. Observation Haki is the ability to detect the presence of others without using your natural senses, but to be able to sense the people all the way to Red Line. That kind of sensory perception is unheard of."

"Yeah, I'm a pretty decent sensor in my normal state as I am at this moment. I can sense everyone on this island right now if I really concentrate, but the form you saw me take with the glowing and the black markings is a higher form of sage mode. With enough time in that state I can sense everyone on the entire planet. That's why I could sense those people suffering so far away."

"W-what!? The entire planet! How is that possible?!" exclaimed Sandersonia.

"Uzumaki Naruto is just that awesome. So what are these other forms of Haki?"

"Armament Haki allows the user to create a form of invisible armor around oneself from the strength of their will for increased defense and sometimes offense, but those with stronger Haki or stronger physical strength can break through Armament Haki. This type of Haki can also allow someone to fight a Logia user as it has been known to be able to cause physical damage when used against them."

"Hmm, I can use my chakra and sage mode to beef up my defense but it's more dependent on the amount of chakra and the density that I make it, but I guess I can control it at will, so it's like the same thing I suppose."

"What is chakra?" asked Marigold.

"Chakra is my energy source. It is a mixture of physical and spiritual energies that my body produces, that I use for my techniques."

"We've never heard of such a thing before." said Sandersonia.

"Didn't think you would. It's kind of exclusive to the people where I come from. Now what's this last form of Haki?"

"Conqueror's Haki, is the most rare form of Haki and it cannot be learned or trained in, only those who are said to be 'chosen' can use this Haki. This type of Haki allows the user to exert their will over others. Those who are weak willed will pass out when this form of Haki is used against them but to stronger people like me and my sisters, it can make us stay rooted to the ground, just like you did to us earlier when you took that glowing form. We were unable to move when we were in your presence. I myself am a user of Conqueror's Haki, but even _I_ was not able to fully withstand your will." Towards the end, Hancock sounded a little angry that she could be seen as weaker than the man in front of her.

"I wasn't exerting my will over you, that was just the density of my chakra in that form. I _can_ exert my will to intimidate others but I have to do it consciously, I wasn't trying to intimidate you or your sisters at all." The three sisters were shocked by his words because if that was just his power affecting them like that, then how would it feel if he really tried to exert his will over them. Just who _is_ this man? "I'm a little curious about what we were talking about earlier before we got into this Haki stuff. I want to know how I was taking away your sister's strength earlier because that really doesn't happen. Would you mind doing a little experiment really quick to see if we can find out what went wrong?"

"Why should we help you?" said Sandersonia.

"It's not my intention to hurt anyone, well at least those that don't deserve it. I wasn't trying to take away your sister's strength and I'd like to avoid doing so in the future with anyone else that might need my help."

"Hmm… Very well. What is it that you would have us do?" said Hancock.

"I'm guessing that all three of you are Devil Fruit users and you said that sea water and seastone are your natural weakness, but I don't have either of those things on me so it must have been my energy. I just want to make sure which energy it was that did it. How about as a control, one of you just shakes my hand without me channeling any sort of energy." Naruto then stuck out his hand for any one of them to take to try and confirm the theory he already had in his head. Sandersonia was the one to move forward and she hesitantly took a hold of his hand, but like he thought nothing seemed to happen as she didn't react in any way.

"Did you feel something Sonia?" asked Marigold.

"No, I didn't feel any kind of reaction from touching him."

"Alright, let's try a different energy and see what happens." Naruto's hand and forearm began to glow but it was not as bright as Sixth Paths Sage Mode. He was only using Kurama's chakra to activate Kurama Mode without gathering any natural energy. Sandersonia once again slowly took his hand but there was a reaction to it but it wasn't one she was expecting. His energy felt like it was giving her strength and making her more invigorated. She immediately let go as her sister called out to her.

"What happened Sonia? You looked like you were surprised. Did he do anything to you?" asked Hancock.

"N-no, it felt like he was giving me strength. I could feel it coursing through me. It was a little intense."

"What? Then why did it feel like seastone when he touched _me_?"

"This isn't the same type of energy I used to heal you. It might look the same but there are subtle differences. Watch, I'll show you now." Naruto then absorbed the natural energy around him and along with Kurama's chakra entered a partial Sixth Paths Sage Mode and they saw as his forearm and hand became even brighter that it was before. "This is what I used to heal you. You can see that it's a little brighter and when I'm in the full cloak the markings are a little different compared to the form I took before this. Shake my hand now and let's see what happens." Sandersonia did so but as soon as they touched, she reeled her hand back as if she was burned.

"That was it! It felt just like seastone! I could feel my strength being drained."

"That's what I thought it would be, but just to make sure. Let's try it one more time but with a less intense version of that, I just want to be completely sure." Naruto stopped the Sixth Paths Sage Mode and instead went into regular sage mode without Kurama's chakra. They saw that his hand was no longer glowing, but saw the change in and around his eyes. Sandersonia took his hand again but pulled it back soon after.

"That was like the same, it was pulling my strength but it was less intense and it wasn't taking it away as quickly."

"What does that mean? How are you able to turn your body into seastone?" asked Marigold.

"I'm not turning my body into seastone. Like I said before, when I use sage mode I take in the natural energies of the surrounding area. I'm thinking that since there is a lot of ocean around your island, the natural energy I absorb must take in the properties of the water which makes my sage mode have the effect of sea water and seastone on Devil Fruit users."

"Then that… that makes you the natural enemy to all Devil Fruit users." Hancock had a disturbed look on her face realizing how dangerous this man can be against those who have eaten the mysterious fruits. If he decided to attack them they could be subdued very quickly, especially if he took that higher form of his sage mode he showed them before. She needed to get this man away from her island as quickly as possible.

"You make it sound like I want to go hunting down Devil Fruit users or something. I can tell that you're more wary of me now but I promise I'm not here to hurt you or cause any trouble. You don't have to fear me."

The sisters just looked at him, studying him to find out if he held any kind of deceit, but they couldn't readily find anything that would give him away. They know he hasn't outright attacked them and he _did_ heal their sister's scar, so they would give him the benefit of the doubt for now. They decided to move on and continue to explain the major leaders in the world to give him the information he initially wanted.

For the next couple of hours the three sisters explained what they could, but they didn't know everything. The Kuja didn't usually bother with the outside world. Their pirate crew only left the island to restock supplies or patrol their waters. And on occasion hail a call from the World Government, but they usually ignored those. Naruto learned that this world was almost entirely comprised of ocean, which further confirmed his theory about his sage mode, and it was so big that a world map had yet to even be completed. The empress showed him a small map of the paradise portion of the Grand Line with only a few places marked with names. He immediately noticed that Mariejois was located on Red Line which was the largest landmass there was on this planet; everything else was just island after island. Amazon Lily was located on the Calm Belt, which he found extremely odd and thought it was impossible that no current flowed through it. They then explained to him about the Marines, the World Government, pirates, the Shichibukai, and what they knew of the Yonko.

Naruto had a serious look on his face as they finished explaining what they could to him. The World Government is the one in charge of the majority of the world. And when he heard that the Red Line falls under their jurisdiction as well, which included Mariejois, he knew that the government was most likely the cause for the suffering he felt coming from that direction. He needed to know more. He didn't think a government would be so careless as to allow undue suffering right beneath their noses. They had to be a part of it but he needed to make sure.

"Thank you for your time. I appreciate everything you told me."

"You're welcome. It is the least we could do for what you have done."

"You know. If you and your other sister have the same marks on you. I can remove them as well."

The sisters tensed at that. They didn't think he would be willing to do the same for them and they didn't even want to mention that they had the same mark, but he figured it out on his own. Hancock was still wary of trusting him and figured he would want something else in exchange for such an offer. They gave him information because he healed Marigold, but what would he ask for if he healed them as well. The price would undoubtedly be too high, but she had to know.

"And what… would you want in return, for such a service?" She was afraid of what his answer would be. Would he want money, a ship, some of her women, one of her sisters, her _own_ body. Any man who can be turned to stone by her has lust in his heart for her, so she knows that is a high possibility. But could she do that? She didn't want to give anyone her body, but she didn't want Sandersonia or herself to bear that mark anymore either. She wouldn't know what to do.

"Nothing. You've given me enough. I can handle things from here. Also, if there is anyone else on your island that needs medical help, I'm willing to treat them as well."

"What?" Her sisters were just as surprised as she was that he would ask for nothing and even offer to help others on their island.

"I don't need you to give me anything. I can figure stuff out on my own now. I'll have to infiltrate… _that_ place and find out what's going on there, but it'll be no biggie."

"Are you an idiot?!"

"Haha! I'm quite familiar with that name too, so I'm not bothered by it. A bunch of other people would agree with you."

"Do you think this some kind of joke?! Only one person has ever broken into Mariejois, and since then their fortifications have more than tripled! There is no way to enter that land unnoticed!"

Naruto gave the empress a wide grin as he responded. "Well, that just makes it more interesting. But whatever defenses they have still won't stop me."

"Why? Why would you want to enter that place? For what purpose?"

Naruto's grin faded as he had a serious expression on his face once more. "To put a stop to whatever is going on there. Like I told you before, in that state you saw me in, I can feel the emotions of others very clearly, and what I felt is _not_ acceptable. I understand there are times when negative emotions like that will inevitably make their appearance throughout any person's life, but when I felt the number of people going through the same thing and with such intensity, it isn't something I can ignore. I am going to put an end to it. And I'll make sure it will _never_ happen again."

"Impossible, the… Celestial Dragons cannot be stopped. The Marines and the World Government will not allow it. They are untouchable."

"No one is untouchable, no matter who they are. And who _are_ the Celestial Dragons if you don't mind me asking?"

"…" Hancock and her sisters had fearful expressions on their faces and could no longer look at him in the eyes when he asked that.

"If it's something you don't want to talk about, then I won't insist. I'll keep my word and heal you and your sister and I'll be on my way."

"… I'll tell you, if only to make you understand that your goal cannot be reached. I'll tell you what we suffered through under the Celestial Dragons."

The Kuja Empress told Naruto of what she and her sisters endured at the hands of the Celestial Dragons. It was not easy, as he could see all three of them breaking down in tears and sobs as old memories resurfaced. She explained that the mark he saw on her youngest sister was a brand they called the Hoof of the Soaring Dragon which was to mark them as being less than human and property of the Celestial Dragons. She told him if they were to ever discover that they held this mark they would be hunted down to be returned to their former owners; that is why they had to keep it so closely guarded, even from their own crew. As she continued, Naruto stayed quiet but his emotions were just as turbulent, but whereas theirs were of sadness and shame, his were of fury and contempt. He actually scared the sisters a couple of times when the floor beneath him started to crack because he was leaking his chakra violently due to his anger. The Biju that dwelled within him were just as disgusted by the recount of their dark past. They were eager to help their container put an end to it.

"(sniff) Do you see now? The Celestial Dragons are the World Nobles. They contain within them the blood of the World Government's creators, and the government allows them to do anything they wish. If anything were to happen to a World Noble the full might of the World Government would stop at nothing to ensure their safety. Do you see now how futile your endeavor really is? Whatever happens within the boundaries of Mariejois can never truly be stopped."

"Yes, I understand. Thank you for telling me about your past. I know it was difficult for you, but I appreciate all the information you have given me."

"Then you will stop your efforts to infiltrate that place?"

"Not at all."

"Have you heard nothing I said?!"

"Yes empress, I heard everything you said loud and clear, and it's all the more reason to put a stop to it. This _government,_ if you can call it that, is an utter failure in my eyes. As far as I'm concerned they don't know the first thing as to what a government's purpose really is. And I am more than willing to _educate_ them." The sisters could feel the anger in Naruto's voice as he referred to the government, he was really against what they stood for.

"That is utter nonsense! The way you speak you will have the entire world against you! One man cannot fight the entire world!"

"That won't stop me from trying."

"You'll die."

"… You shared something deeply personal and traumatic with me, a complete stranger. So allow me to share something with you. You might think me arrogant or maybe insane, but I have endured wars and battles with beings that could utterly decimate entire planets if given the time or opportunity. And I have overcome them. Not on my own by any stretch, but compared to them, a simple government will not be enough to stop me."

"How can you expect us to believe something like that? And the World Government is anything but simple. Everyone from captain and above are the elite of the Marines, and the Admirals are among the strongest people in the world that won't hesitate when they are called into battle. They are the true power of the Marines and the World Government."

"Then let me show you." Naruto then stuck out his fist in front of the three sisters which had them confused as they didn't know what he wanted, and seeing this he elaborated to them. "Bump your fists into mine and I'll show you a glimpse of the things I've seen and done."

The sisters were hesitant and wary but after a few moments, Hancock slowly moved her fist forward deciding to give this man a chance. Her sisters followed soon after as they did not want their older sister to be alone, they would always walk beside her. As soon as all of their fists touched, they could feel a warmth spread over them and then their vision went white.

Visions quickly came to them as they saw different battles that he fought in. He and a small army fought a giant monster with one eye and ten tails that would probably be the most terrifying creature they would ever see. He and a few others fighting a woman with horns that looked to have transported them to different worlds at a moments notice, and could kill anything instantly by turning them to ash. They saw the destruction left behind from a massive attack between two gigantic beings looked to be made completely of energy; one a massive fox with nine tails, three faces and six arms, and the other a massive purple warrior in samurai armor with lightning coming from its back wielding a bow made entirely of electricity.

The scenery then shifted to a different battlefront, where hordes of grotesque monsters came out by the hundreds, attacking him and a different group of warriors. They saw him run right through them with ease not slowing in the slightest. He fought off giant monsters with his bare hands or with grossly destructive attacks that left very little in its wake. The last image they saw was the face of a giant monster that they could only describe to be pure evil, with nothing but hatred and malice emanating from its entire being. The first and last images they were given of those two monsters would probably give them nightmares. As the visions left them and they returned to the present they couldn't help but be speechless and terrified of the things they saw.

"The battles I have lived through, are not ones that many people would be able to survive. Again, this might sound arrogant but if I had not been there to fight those battles, many more would have been killed or those worlds might just have been lost entirely."

"… What are you? What do you mean worlds?"

"(sigh) I was not completely honest with you in the beginning. I… am not from an undiscovered island. I am from a different world entirely. It is true that I had just left my home and was transported here, but it was no accident. I honestly had no control over what world I would end up in and I don't have a way to get back so I _am_ essentially stuck here. That is why I had no knowledge of this place, because it is the first time I have set foot here."

"Do you really expect us to believe you are from a different world?!" said Sandersonia.

"You saw my memories didn't you? Do any of those things look like they exist in your world?" Sandersonia was stuck on what to say to that, because none of what they saw looked familiar to them. And she and her sisters prayed that none of it _did_ exist in their world.

"… If what you say is true, then why _were_ you transported to our world? You said that it was no accident that you are here. So what is you purpose?" said Hancock.

"My purpose is to save lives and help people in need, and those people in Mariejois are the first on my list. I don't care how big the World Government thinks it is, I don't care how many people they throw at me. I'll run right over them if it means I can give innocent people who are suffering a chance at a better life. _No one_ deserves what you three went through, _no one's_ life is worth _less_ than any others', and _no one_ has the right to _own_ another person. Slavery is one of the most disgusting things humans have ever done to each other, and I will _not_ allow it to continue."

Hancock's eyes were full of unshed tears as she heard him speak. He didn't think they were less than human because of the mark that marred their bodies. She was always afraid of what others would think if they knew she was a slave, perhaps even turn them in to receive a bounty. That is why she always put up the facade of the arrogant empress so that no one would question her or her sisters so they would continue to believe they were higher status than they truly thought themselves to be. The way he spoke, there was no doubt in his voice, only a resolute conviction and the utter belief in his ideals. With the visions she saw she wants to believe in him, to believe that he's strong enough to challenge the world and come out on top. She wiped away her tears as she sat straighter to address him.

"Thank you, for your words. I wish I could openly give you my support but… "

"I know. I figured your status as Shichibukai is only to keep you and your people safe, so I understand that openly siding with me would make you and your people a target for the World Government."

"Yes, but all the same, I do hope that you succeed in your goal, no matter how lofty it may be. If you ever need aid in the future that does not openly pit us against the World Government then the Kuja will do what they can to help you."

"Thank you. I appreciate the offer. Let me get rid of those scars on you now, so you won't have to bear their mark on you any longer. Since you're Devil Fruit users I'll have to use the form that doesn't use natural energy so it will take a bit longer to heal you, so just bear with me a moment. Just turn around and give me your backs, no need to take off any clothes, and I should have it done in a couple of minutes."

"You don't know how much this means to us. We can't thank you enough."

"Just as long as I can take away some of your pain, it's enough for me."

As Hancock and Sandersonia turned their backs to face Naruto, the empress felt her heart skip a beat from the words he just spoke to her. She could feel her face getting red and her heart beating faster, as she felt his warm hand on her hair and then pressed into her back, and could feel his energy seeping into her to heal and take away that mark. It was just as Sandersonia said earlier, his energy was revitalizing, but it felt so serene to her. The depressing thoughts she had before from recounting their past were melting away, and she felt warm and safe. After a few minutes, the loss of his warm hand had her missing the connection but she had no time to dwell on that as both her sisters dragged her over to her wardrobe to check to see if the mark was really gone. Marigold stood in front of the opening to give them more privacy and Naruto could hear them laughing and crying in joy at them all no longer burdened with that horrid reminder of their past. They all felt truly free from slavery, now that their marks were gone. After a few more moments the Gorgon Sisters came back to him with a few happy tears staining their faces.

"Thank you for keeping your word. This means so much to us. What will you do now? Do you need a ship maybe? Or is there anything we can help you with now?"

"I would appreciate it if you could keep my story to yourselves for now, I don't really want too many people knowing about that just yet. I can tell you three are good people so I feel I can trust you with a little of my past." Hancock blushed a little harder when he said she was a good person and could feel her heart beating faster.

"Of course! W-we will keep your secret safe."

Naruto looked outside and saw that it was already the start of the evening, but felt that shouldn't stop him right now. "Well, I guess it's later than I thought it was, but I have a lot of ground to cover. I should get going."

"Y-you don't need a ship to start your journey?" Hancock still had a blush on her face as her heart was racing faster. Her sisters were a bit surprised she would insist on helping him as she had never really offered any assistance to anyone, especially a man they just met. It was a different side to her they haven't seen yet.

"No, that won't be necessary. For how far Mariejois is, a ship would take too long. I want to get there as soon as possible so I'll just go my own way."

"I see. W-when will we s-see you again?"

"Not really sure." The empress' heart seemed to sink at that response, she felt a pit in her stomach and she didn't know why. "But if you girls ever need any help, I'll gladly come back if you need me. So here, take this." Naruto held one of his Hiraishin kunai by the blade to give to Hancock.

"What is this?"

"It's a special kunai of mine that will let me come back here instantaneously. If you channel some of your energy into it or just throw it, it will act like a beacon to me and I'll feel its pull letting me know that you need me."

"O-oh. Thank you. I will be sure to use it if we need your help." Hancock held the kunai to her chest, mindful of the blades, holding it tight as if it were a lifeline. Her heart seemed to relax a little knowing he was a short throw away.

"Well, I'll let you three get back to whatever it was that you were doing. See ya later!" Naruto then moved to the balcony through the open double doors and the three sisters saw what looked like six insect wings sprout out of his back as he jumped to sky and took off at incredible speed.

"What is that man? Do you really think he's from a different world?" asked Marigold.

"I don't know. No normal human can have powers like that without some kind of Devil Fruit. And with the things we saw him do in his memories, he has far too many abilities that a single fruit can give to someone." said Sandersonia.

"What do you think sister?" Marigold asked to Hancock as her cheeks were still rosy and she continued to hold on tight to that kunai. "Sister?"

"Huh? Oh, y-yes! What is it?"

"Are you okay?" asked Sandersonia.

"Of course! W-why wouldn't I be?"

"You just seem a little, preoccupied, but anyway. Do you think we can trust him?"

"He… he took away our marks. With that, we are truly free. We don't have to hide in fear or shame anymore. That is all I need to trust him."

The two younger siblings listened to their sister's words and realized she is right. He didn't do anything to harm them, but instead took away something they thought they would have for the rest of their lives. And in exchange, all they did was give him information that wasn't exactly a secret or could be used against them. They all felt that they really did get the better end of the deal.

* * *

Naruto had been flying over the ocean for a few hours now using Chomei's chakra to create wings for himself. It was still the middle of the night so it was very dark, but all he had to do was head straight in one direction and he would get there eventually. As he continued moving forward he could see daylight up ahead of him, which was strange because it was still nighttime where he was currently. He would eventually come to terms that this new world he was on was very strange and the proper laws of physics, astronomy, even common sense and many other things did not apply to this world.

He came within the area that the sun was shining brightly and from several kilometers away he could see many plumes of smoke rising in a single area. He felt that if there were people in trouble he couldn't just ignore them, so he made a slight detour to investigate what was going on. From up in the sky, high enough where no one could see him, he had a bird's eye view of the entire island, if you could call it that. He saw a giant hole in which the ocean was falling into, making a massive circular waterfall. In the center of that hole was a large landmass that was connected to a smaller piece of land that was on the rim of the waterfall connected by an earth bridge. How that thin piece of land was holding up the large island was anyone's guess, if that land bridge were to be destroyed the whole island would fall in the massive hole in the ocean.

On top of the island was a large city with many buildings that were now broken and burning as there looked to be a war going on below him. He didn't know what the fight was about so he felt he shouldn't just jump in without knowing anything. He made his way closer and the closer he got he could see many flags bearing the symbol of the World Government and many soldiers in white uniforms carrying the Marine symbol and many men in black suits he assumed also worked for the World Government. He saw that much of the fighting with the soldiers looked to be over for the most part as the trail of destruction led to a building at the end of the island, that he overheard some soldiers calling it the courthouse, that faced another giant building that bore the name Enies Lobby. There looked to be a draw bridge that connected the two buildings but the bridge was pulled up so it left a massive gap between them.

In order to keep out of sight, he activated his transparency technique to keep anyone from noticing him and made his way over to the larger building across the raised bridge. He saw a group of six people, well one looked like an animal human hybrid but he's seen stranger things, on top of the courthouse. This group did not look like any Marines or World Government soldiers so it was safe to say that they were the ones who were fighting them. Across from them on the Enies Lobby building was another group of people, most of which were in suits, one person had a weird leather mask, and another was wearing a speedo, but the person he took more note of was the woman in cuffs standing there with a determined look on her face. He stopped the flow of Chomei's chakra to take away his wings and he fell towards the front of the building and used his chakra to stick to the wall and slide down closer to listen to what they were saying.

One of the men in suits looked up to where he was as he slid down, but with his shinobi training there was no way that he heard him, so this guy must have better awareness than the others as he seemed to stare at Naruto for several moments.

"What are you staring at Rob Lucci?! Can't you see I'm on the brink of making history! My promotion depends on this!"

"… It's nothing." Naruto could immediately tell that he doesn't like the guy with the mask, but he's got to admit, this Rob Lucci guy has sharp instincts.

It looked like the group on the courthouse came to save the woman in cuffs as they were yelling at each other back and forth trying to convince her to go back with them. He was a little put off at how insistent she was on dying. He listened intently as the woman he heard called Nico Robin told her story. How her homeland was destroyed by something called a Buster Call because they were researching ancient history that the government deemed illegal. They even put a bounty on her as a child because she survived the attack and made everyone believe she was dangerous. The more he heard, the deeper this World Government was getting on his shit list. It looked like their arguments were coming to an end when the leader of the small group across from them told the one with the long nose to shoot down the flag of the World Government.

"Robin! I need to hear it from you! Say you want to live!" It took her a few moments before she gave her answer as tears were freely flowing down her face, and she yelled out to them.

"I WANT TO LIVE! TAKE ME OUT TO THE SEA WITH YOU!"

Naruto could see the happy expressions on their faces as she told them she wanted to be rescued. He couldn't help but like this bunch, they took their friendships seriously and were willing to fight a war to save each other. Then things went kind of weird from there. The guy in the speedo burned up some blueprints and the masked guy got pissed and pushed him off the building. He then saw the kid with the straw hat stretch his arms ridiculously far grabbing a hold of two of his crew members on either end of their group, and jump off the building, and then a train of all things came and jumped the half lowered bridge as they and the speedo guy landed on it and they all crashed into the Enies Lobby building.

He decided then and there that he wouldn't interfere with their fights as this was something personal for them, but he had a feeling that with their insane luck they wouldn't need his help anyway. However that didn't just mean he was going to leave them hanging. He was going to tag along with Nico Robin, as Spandam and Rob Lucci took her away to get to the back of the building. He could tell that Spandam was a loud mouth and he felt that he could get some valuable intel by just sticking around him for a while.

* * *

As all four of them walked the tunnels beneath the building, with them none the wiser to Naruto's presence, Naruto found that he really couldn't stand Spandam. He kept on gloating and taunting Robin trying to make her feel worthless. He even tried hitting her when she would talk back to him but Naruto was having none of that. The first time he tried to hit her, he simply blocked his hand, still without revealing himself, and all three of them stood there unsure of what just happened. Spandam thought it was a fluke and tried to hit her again but was blocked again by Naruto. Rob Lucci felt that presence again from before and tried to strike out at Naruto where he thought he would be but he hit nothing but air as Naruto dodged him. Spandam kept trying and failing to hit Robin and he just settled for yelling at her and somehow blaming her for being a demon and not being able to hit her.

As they moved on, Naruto deliberately allowed his steps to be heard in the long hallway and Rob Lucci stopped them a few times, because he could hear four sets of footsteps instead of three. When he stopped them Naruto would take a few more steps just so that the other two would hear them and then stop as they stood in an uncomfortable silence. He thought it was funny as hell, because Spandam looked really freaked out that these weird things were happening around them and Rob Lucci would strike out again to try and hit something he knew was there but he could never hit it. That's when they all heard it.

"ROBIN!"

They all turned around and Naruto could see the expressions in their faces, Robin looked relieved, Spandam looked scared, and Rob Lucci looked like he was anticipating his fight with the Straw Hat kid as he had a smirk on his face. Rob Lucci was eventually left behind as he stayed back inside a room to wait for his fight and Spandam locked the door behind him and started shoving Robin forward up a staircase. Naruto saw that he took out that golden transponder he saw earlier and started speaking into it like a two-way radio.

"Oi! Come in CP9! What the hell are you guys doing?! Don't you know there's a pirate on my tail?!… Are you listening to me?!"

"(gasp) You… what the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"Huh?" Spandam looked at Robin who was looking at the den-den mushi in his hand, and saw that he was holding the wrong one. "EH?! G-g-golden den-den mushi! Shit! _This_ is the baby den-den mushi. How careless! I activated the Buster Call!"

"You idiot! Hurry and call it off!"

"What? Call it off? Who do you think you're talking to?! Haha! The Buster Call is probably exactly what I need! Yes! This is great! I'm the director of CP9! I invoked the Buster Call to ensure your safe delivery to the government. And better yet this will guarantee the slaughter of all pirates on this island! Hahaha!"

"Don't be an idiot! I already told you! It isn't that simple! An attack like that is devoid of humanity! It will reduce everything on Enies Lobby to ashes! The buildings, the people, the whole island itself! You'll be sacrificing everything for just one petty goal! You have no idea what happened on Ohara twenty years ago!"

"Of course I do! That place was just a useless pile of dirt as far as the World Government was concerned. Since the plans for Pluton are gone now, you're the last remaining link to the ancient weapons. Enough military power to upturn an entire era is riding on this! If this is what it takes to obliterate those pirates from stealing you away from me, even if thousands of soldiers die, it is a necessary sacrifice for the sake of a glorious future! But, most importantly, this is gonna get me promoted!"

"Does a human life mean nothing to you?!"

"Did you forget? CP9 is a secret government organization. If a hundred deaths can save a thousand lives, we will kill those hundred people without hesitation. True justice necessitates cruelty! Besides, if those idiot soldiers couldn't stop a few pirates, they probably deserve to die anyway! Hahahaha!" Robin noticed, as he was laughing, that the other den-den mushi in his hand was turned on as their argument was broadcast for the whole island to hear, so she told him.

"… That baby den-den mushi is still on."

"Huh? Oh shit! Did everyone hear all that?! (cough) By the way, this is Straw Hat Luffy." Robin immediately leaned forward into the baby den-den mushi to warn everybody on the island.

"Everyone leave the island! A Buster Call is coming for Enies Lobby! Everyone on it will die!"

"Shut your mouth!" He moved to punch her face despite his many previous failures and his wrist was caught in a firm grip, and the baby den-den mushi that was in his hand fell onto the steps beneath them. Spandam and Robin suddenly found themselves staring at the hand that was holding him back and then to the man that was standing beside them.

"I'm really tired of you trying to hit her you know."

"W-what?! Who the hell are you?!"

"If you couldn't tell yet, I'm the guy that's been walking right next to you this whole time. Why do you think you haven't been able to lay a finger on her since the start of your retreat? That Rob Lucci guy felt my presence a few times but he was just too slow to get the drop on me."

Rob Lucci and the other members of CP9 that could still hear their conversation from their own den-den mushi were shocked that there was someone else with their leader and Rob was angry that that man avoided all his attacks and remained unseen. The same could be said for the Straw Hat crew, they didn't know who was with Robin and it worried them a little, but he _did_ say he was protecting her from Spandam, so maybe he was on their side?

"Who are you?! Are you from another division? Did the World Government send in some back up to protect me?! Hahaha! I knew it! They know how valuable I am, but why were you stopping me from giving this demon what she rightfully deserves!"

"You know, I've been called a demon before too. I can't say that I really enjoyed that title."

"Who cares what we call her, she's a criminal! And soon the world will be a safer place with her death! Right after we take away everything she knows that is."

"Sorry, but I can't let that happen."

"What did you say?! Who are you?!"

"If I had to guess, I'm probably going to be the World's most dangerous criminal. Eventually."

"What?! Monkey D. Dragon is the world's most dangerous criminal! How do you think you can compare to him?!"

"I have no idea who that is."

"Who are you?" asked Robin.

"My name's Naruto Uzumaki."

"What?! Why did you answer _her_?!"

"Cuz she's a lady. And you don't deserve those cuffs on you. Lets get those off of you." Naruto then tried using his strength to break the cuffs even enforcing his muscles with chakra but they wouldn't budge.

"That won't work." said Robin as she looked down dejectedly at his failure to free her.

"Hahahaha! Are you an idiot?! Those seastone handcuffs are as hard as diamond! There's no way they can be broken with your bare hands! Hahahaha!"

"Let's try something else then." Naruto then went into a partial transformation of Sixth Paths Sage Mode as both of his arms were bathed in a golden fire and he tried breaking her of her bonds once more.

"I told you, it won't work. It's seastone, your Devil Fruit can't help you. You need the key." said Robin. Spandam just continued laughing at the futility of trying to break them but then he went silent as they all heard a crack. Naruto put in some more effort and soon many cracks started appearing all over the cuffs until they finally broke into tiny pieces.

"EHHHH?!" Spandam was rightfully shocked as no one had ever been strong enough to just outright break seastone cuffs like that. Everyone on Enies Lobby that could still hear their conversation through the baby den-den mushi yelled out in surprise too as they heard them break. The Straw Hats were relieved that Robin was free and it seemed like that man was trying to help them so they had one less thing to worry about as they turned back to their own fights against CP9.

Robin just stared at her hands, finally free from her bonds after all this time. She felt her strength returning to her and she looked at Spandam with an angry scowl and prepared to crush him, but she found Naruto there gently holding her wrists to keep her from doing anything.

"What are you doing? We can't just…"

"I know, just, not yet. I want him to see what I have coming for his World Government."

"What?! You want to pick a fight with the World Government too?! You're just one man! What do you think you can do against the might of the World Government?!"

"I'll show you in a minute, so just shut up and wait there." Naruto gave him a cold look as his pupils turned into slits, and Spandam shut up immediately, terrified for his life. "But first things first." Naruto moved to pick up the den-den mushi so he could speak to everyone on the island. "What the hell is this thing? A snail? This shit just keeps getting weirder and weirder."

"It's still on you know."

"Oh, is it? Well anyway, hello! You can all hear me right?"

""Who is this?!"" The entirety of CP9 yelled at Naruto through their own den-den mushi, wanting to know who was with their leader.

"Don't take that tone with _me_ you bunch of brats!" All the members of CP9 were taken aback by his outburst and everyone else on the rest of the island had sweat drops on their brow for the way he spoke to some of the most dangerous people under the World Government. Robin and Spandam were just thinking to themselves that he didn't look any older then they did, he probably looked _younger_ than most members of CP9. "Now here's what's gonna happen. I'm taking your dumb leader and your former captive up top from wherever it is I am right now and we're gonna go give a proper greeting to this Buster Call thing. So the rest of you pirate kids don't have to worry about that. I'll handle it. I'll keep your friend here safe, so just do what you gotta do, and you all will be reunited once again after you've taken care of business. This is Naruto Uzumaki signing out! Uh, how do you turn this thing off?"

* * *

In the room with Rob and Luffy, Luffy used Rob's distraction of listening to the den-den mushi and snatched it out of his hands to speak to Naruto.

"Hey! Haruto, hold on!"

"It's Naruto!"

"Until we get there… protect her. Please!"

"I promise."

"Just wait Robin. We'll all leave together. I have a good feeling about this guy. We can trust him. Wait for us."

* * *

Robin had a few tears in her eyes as she listened to her captain and responded to him. "I'll be waiting, captain." With that she took the snail from Naruto and turned it off for him.

"Hmph! You two really think you can escape this place? The might of the World Government is headed straight here to ensure my victory!"

"Didn't I tell you to shut up?"

"You may have caught me off guard earlier, but I have nothing to fear! The Buster Call will come to bring back their hero! I am too valuable for the World Government to lose! And you, will not stop me! Funkfreed!"

Naruto saw Spandam take out the sword he had on him and point it at him, and it began to stretch as the head of an elephant took shape and its trunk took on the shape of the sword aimed to stab right through him. Naruto was not phased by this, even though an elephant sword is a first for him, and he caught the blade in a vice grip and looked the elephant in the eyes as his turned to slits once more and he squeezed its bladed trunk a bit, making the elephant whimper in pain and fear. Naruto let go of it and Funkfreed then went back into its sword form, refusing to come back out again, even against Spandam's orders.

"Funkfreed! Get out here and kill him! I command you!"

"He won't listen. He fears me more than he fears you. Now, we can't have you trying anything like that again can we?"

"W-wait! I'm sorry! I won't do it again! Please!"

"Geez, grow a spine will you! For all your babbling of how great and powerful the World Government is, you sure are a coward aren't you?"

"What did you say to me?" It looked like Spandam didn't like being called a coward as his expression darkened as he looked down and his hair shadowed his face. He yelled out in rage and threw a haymaker at Naruto, but he easily caught his fist and twisted his wrist nearly breaking it as he cried out in pain, and then he kneed him in the gut, which caused spittle to fly out of his mouth as he collapsed to his knees and began coughing.

"Hmm, maybe you're not a total coward but you are pretty weak. I know children that could throw a better punch than you, stronger too." What Naruto wasn't telling them was that those children he was talking about were his own children and grandchildren, so some could say that wasn't a fair comparison. As he was down on his knees, Naruto used his mokuton to create his own shackles around his wrists behind his back. He then picked him up and threw him over his shoulder to carry up the stairs with Robin following him.

"You're a Devil Fruit user?"

"No, just one of my many abilities. I'm not exactly normal, for a human. Don't worry about it too much."

"… What are we going to do? The Buster Call is coming. There is no escaping that attack."

"I said leave it to me didn't I?"

"You don't understand, the…"

"Tell me, what does this Buster Call entail, exactly?"

"(cough) Haha! The Buster Call is the strongest military attack at the World Government's disposal. _That_ is absolute justice!" said Spandam while still being carried over Naruto's shoulder.

"The World Government doesn't see the people on the map. They just don't care if they erase an entire island off that map. _That_ is the Buster Call." said Robin.

"Hahahaha! Exactly! Ten of the most powerful warships led by five of our strongest vice admirals will come here to ensure that justice is upheld!"

"Ten ships huh? Haha! That's great!"

"What are you laughing about?! This isn't a joke!" yelled Robin.

"Ha, sorry. You're right, it isn't a joke, but this is just convenient for me. I wanted to send a message to the World Government and this is the perfect opportunity to do so." Neither Robin or Spandam knew what Naruto was trying to do and they both thought he was either an idiot or insane. They soon reached the top of the stairs and exited through the door and found themselves outside on a long bridge facing giant gates that Naruto just took notice of.

"The Gates of Justice. Once they open the warships will come through."

"That gate is just stupidly huge. Who does that?!"

"Hey! Over here! Hurry up and save me you idiots!" Spandam saw a group of Marines in front of them and called out to them catching their attention. They saw Naruto and Robin with a captive Spandam and moved to attack them to save their superior. Robin moved to try and take care of them but he could tell she was still recovering from being in those cuffs for so long, so he moved in front of her to cut her off.

"I'll handle it." The Marines started to fire their guns, and Spandam was yelling at them not to hit him, but Naruto took out a kunai and deflected all the bullets coming at him as he kept his body in front of Robin. All the Marines and Robin looked shocked to see that he deflected them with a mere knife, but Naruto wasn't done yet. He then inhaled deeply and rapidly fired off miniature air bullets that the soldiers couldn't see very clearly so they all ended up being hit. It wasn't a killing attack as they all were either knocked out or had the air knocked out of them, but either way they were all down and not getting back up any time soon.

"EEEEH?! O-one attack!"

"Yup, that's all it ever takes really. Now let's continue."

Robin was getting increasingly hesitant to keep moving towards the Gates of Justice, but her captain's words telling her to trust this man kept her nerves steady for the most part. As they arrived at the end of the bridge they could see the Gates of Justice just barely opening, telling everybody that the Buster Call was on its way.

"This is taking too long. I guess I should just open it up for them."

"There's no way you can open the Gates of Justice! You really are an idiot!"

Naruto dropped Spandam to the ground and gave him a hard stare, frightening him on the spot. "Only those close to me are allowed to call me an idiot. I want you to watch closely. I just recently started to learn about your World Government and their bullshit practices. Your government has no idea what kind of shit they have headed for them. Listening to your drivel this whole time just proves to me that they aren't fit to be leading anything if there are people like you issuing orders. So I'm going to send them a message, that even _they_ should be able to read loud and clear."

Naruto forced Spandam to stand up and face the Gates of Justice, and he entered one of his transformations only using Kurama's chakra. Robin and Spandam saw him glow a bright yellow that looked to be flames coming off his body, and black markings covering his clothes. He raised his right hand in the air gathering chakra for a Bijudama. As it continued to grow into massive proportions, Spandam fell to his knees not believing what was happening in front of him. Robin was also shocked as she could feel the energy he was giving off and it wasn't even stopping yet. Behind them in the Tower of Justice, where some of the Straw Hats finished their fights, they could see Naruto's massive attack through a gaping hole in the wall where they stood.

* * *

"What the hell is going on?! This is really scary!" exclaimed Sogeking as he was running around frantically, while Zoro and Sanji looked on in awe.

"What is this guy? How can anyone do something like that." said Sanji.

"I don't know, but Luffy said to trust him. So I will."

"How can you trust someone we don't even know you stupid moss head! He's got Robin-chan down there!"

"Shut it you shitty cook! I trust Luffy, so if he says we can trust him, then I will."

Sanji had nothing to say against that, as Luffy had a talent for reading people. He just didn't like that Robin was down there so close to an attack like that. What if she gets hurt!

* * *

After building up the Bijudama into a massive attack, he shot the menacing ball towards the slowly opening Gates of Justice traveling at a rapid speed and parting the ocean along the way. After a few moments, the attack hit and everyone's vision went white as it made contact with the gates. The gates were so massive that the explosion didn't completely destroy them but a gaping hole was left and the World Government symbol that was on the gates was utterly destroyed. Spandam looked up at Naruto in fear, as he stopped using the chakra cloak, and he saw what was left of the gates just barely hanging on their hinges.

"W-w-what are you?"

"I'm pissed is what I am. But don't worry, I won't be firing off one of those again. I just hope I didn't scare them away. Your World Government is in for a rude awakening."

"What did the World Government do to you?" asked Robin as she was curious as to why he was so angry with them.

"To me personally? Nothing."

"T-then why go against us?! The World Government does nothing but uphold justice!"

"Your idea of justice and mine are two completely different things. I'm guessing that your government follows the idea of 'might makes right.' That's why they'll trample over everyone who gets in their way without a second thought and justify it any way they want. Well I plan to show them that their might isn't as great as they think it is. I'll completely destroy this World Government if I have to and rebuild a new one from the ground up if that's what it takes."

"Are you part of the Revolutionary Army?" asked Robin.

"No. But if it's what I think it is then I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this government has to be changed. Anyone with a half decent brain should see how immoral their practices are. What they did to your people, and what they're doing to others even as we speak is unforgivable. Their justice is wrong, and I'm going to do what I can to make it right."

Robin could tell that he meant his words. It was inspiring but no doubt a daunting task that he set for himself. At any rate, she is thankful to him at least for helping her. "Thank you."

Naruto gave her a wide grin as he said. "Don't thank _me_. I was just passing through. You should really thank those friends of yours. I heard all of your back and forth across the bridge earlier. They really care about you."

"I know, I was a fool. I plan to thank everybody once we finally get away from here."

"Good. It's hard to find people like that, who are willing to sacrifice themselves to protect what's precious to them. I like that. You kids are a special bunch. If you all keep that mindset, I can see you all going far in the future."

"What do you… (gasp) They're coming!" From Robin's exclamation they could see the ten warships starting to exit the broken gates and started to fire off volleys of canon fire that hit the ocean in front of them. This is where Naruto planned to send his message, if this Buster Call was their use of overwhelming force then he would use his own.

"Hehe, alright. Let's show them a _real_ Buster Call. Okay guys, come out one at a time and _fifteen percent_ worth of your chakra _only_! Each of us gets _one_ ship, but I don't want you killing anyone yet! Most of those men are just lowly soldiers following orders, but they are still responsible for continuing to follow a shitty government like this! Other than that, have at em'!"

Robin and Spandam were a little freaked out by Naruto seemingly talking to no one, but then they felt a spike of energy coming from him and what appeared to be a head began to emerge from his torso. The head of some kind of monster they couldn't identify came out followed by a sandy brown body with blue vein like markings going across it.

"Wooo! Yeah baby! Shukaku's back in action! It's been too long since I've been able to let loose!"

"Hey! What did I just finish telling you?! No letting loose! You hear me!"

"Yeah yeah! Always ruining my fun! And did you have to let us out on an ocean? You know my sand gets slow when it gets wet!"

"Oh deal with it, you big baby! You know how to water walk!"

"Who are you calling a baby?! I'm way older than you, you punk!"

"I can _still_ kick your ass!"

"Not without sage mode you can't!"

"You wanna bet!"

"Will you two give it a rest?! Shukaku, you should be grateful Naruto-kun even let us out this early, and Naruto-kun, would you please stop antagonizing him?" said Matatabi as she was the next to emerge.

""Whatever!"" The two said in a huff as they looked away from each other and Shukaku moved to engage the first ship from the left heading towards them.

"For how old you two are, you still act like brats."

"You still love me Matatabi!"

Nico Robin, Spandam, and everyone else who could see, were shocked that these scary and deadly looking beasts exited his body one by one standing nearly twenty feet tall. They were even more surprised they were arguing with each other like they were family. After the first beast came a cat bathed in blue fire with two tails and yellow and green eyes; then a gray and red turtle with a spiked shell, three tails and one eye emerged; then a red gorilla with horns, orange eyes, and four blunt spiked tails; soon after that a white horse with four horns atop its dolphin head and five tails came out; that was followed by a white slug that stood upright on two small feet and two equally small arms with six tails; then a great horned beetle with gray carapace and six insect wings and one long tail came out; then a flesh colored ox head with a broken horn followed by a human shaped torso and arms with eight tentacles exited Naruto's body; and finally a great nine tailed fox with red eyes and long ears came from within Naruto.

All the Biju came out to help Naruto in dealing with the Buster Call. Normally they are far bigger than the forms they have taken now, even larger than they were during their time in the Elemental Nations as they have all grown stronger, but this wasn't supposed to be a massacre. This was just a show of strength so the World Government knows that Naruto isn't someone to be ignored, while also to bruise their ego and pride. If this was their ultimate show of military force, then they would decimate it and send them back crawling to lick their wounds. For better or worse, by the end of this fight, the higher-ups of the World Government would know and eventually loathe the name Uzumaki Naruto.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Yyyyep, it's finally here. Sorry it took this long but I got hit with a long bout of writers block. Let's hope I don't disappoint.

Just a light note, I know some of you will find similarities from this chapter with another story by one Kenchi618. (Which I recommend reading his Naruto stories, most of which are crossovers, that I myself have read, and he has to be one of the best Naruto authors on this site.) I admit that some inspiration came from his story but I did not copy anything, at least to my knowledge, since it has been some time since I've read his One Piece crossover, and I don't have an eidetic memory. But I think it's only a few small similarities, nothing major.

And for my Sage of Sanctuary fans, I'm sorry but I'm still working on it. I think that story is what started the writers block in the first place and I'm still having trouble moving it forward. I'm a little less than half way through. I just want you to know that I _am_ working on it though and now that this chapter is out I'll be putting all my focus on that story now. _Really_ sorry!

I'll shut up now. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 2

The sight of these nine tailed beasts had everyone on edge. Eight of the beasts stood in front of Naruto, Robin, and Spandam on the ocean, while Shukaku couldn't wait and was already moving to engage the first ship. Without any notice the eight beasts let out an ear piercing roar that could be heard for miles and miles around. Everyone closest to them besides Naruto had to cover their ears because it was so deafening, and many soldiers who were conscious and recovering from their fights with the Straw Hat Pirates stood in shock and fear as their monstrous roars met their ears.

"Hey! What the hell?! Why didn't you tell me we were doing the roar?!" exclaimed Shukaku as he turned around to face his siblings as he felt he was left out.

"It's kinda obvious this would be the time to do it." said Kurama.

"It's not our fault you're so impatient." said Isobu.

"Unlucky." said Chomei.

"You guys suck! You never tell me anything!" said Shukaku as he turned around in anger heading back towards the ship he was aiming for, only to get hit in the face with a giant cannon ball as he turned his head. The other Biju started snickering at their brother's misfortune as he was hit, but this only made Shukaku madder while his face was reforming with his sand. He then let out his own deafening roar and began yelling immediately after. "That's it! I'm going to fucking murder _all_ of you!"

"Oi! We _just_ talked about this Shukaku!" yelled out Naruto.

"Gah! I hate this world already!" Shukaku then continued to move forward but this time he sent several cannon balls back to the ships that were aiming at him with his magnet release, and destroyed the front cannons of three of the warships.

"Way to keep a low profile, that idiot. And he wonders why I don't let him out that much with his loud mouth. I just hope no one thinks too much into that." Naruto said to himself, but unfortunately he was not so lucky, as one archaeologist heard the final outburst of the one tailed beast, but decided to hold onto that information for later.

* * *

(Moments earlier aboard Vice Admiral Onigumo's Warship)

"What kind of monster can destroy the Gates of Justice?!" exclaimed a soldier as they were just passing through the broken gates and saw large chunks of debris still falling off of them into the ocean.

"Only a monster with absolutely no morals or sense of justice is responsible for destroying our sacred gates. Whoever it is, they have trampled on the ideals of our government and it will not go unpunished! We will face our enemy head on without hesitation and they will know what true justice means." said Onigumo. Onigumo is a tall man wearing a gray suit with a green shirt. He has long spiky black hair with a perpetual frown on his face and is always seen smoking a cigarette.

""YES SIR!""

"Anyone who doesn't lay their life on the line in the name of absolute justice will be court-martialed and summarily executed for their crimes by me personally!"

""SIR!""

The four other Vice-Admirals and commodores of the other five ships were having similar conversations with their men, although some, but not all, of them had the same beliefs as Onigumo's absolute justice. They wanted to ensure they were ready for whatever lay before them beyond the gates at Enies Lobby. Unfortunately, no amount of training would prepare them for what is awaiting them this day.

As the Buster Call drew closer, one of the lookouts on another ship that had been the first to make it out of the gates, made a startling discovery. He saw nine beasts atop the ocean, and even though they did not appear to be very big, as some of the giants under the World Government were larger, they all looked extremely deadly. The lookout panicked, and one of the first beasts he had a good look at happened to be Isobu and he assumed they were all Sea Kings.

"Sea Kings! Sea Kings at twelve o'clock. Open fire!"

Their ship was the first to open fire, and soon after that the others followed, but they were still a bit too far and only hit the ocean in front of the beasts. The Vice-Admirals weren't very pleased that they opened fire without one of them issuing the order but they all had the same targets in mind so it wasn't too important right now, but Onigumo vowed to make sure whoever acted without orders would be punished severely.

The cannon fire was put to an abrupt halt as they all heard the deafening roars of the monsters before them. Fear immediately set in on the lower ranking soldiers of the Buster Call ships, but the higher ranking officers and Vice-Admirals did not allow it to affect them too much and the Vice-Admirals held their ground far better than everyone else. After some reprimanding from the leaders of their ships for allowing themselves to fear the enemy, the soldiers went back to work on bombarding their targets.

One ship had finally hit their mark on the beast that was moving out before the others and they all gave a cry of joy for their victory. Their victory was short-lived though, as the same beast they believed to have killed let out its own roar and continued to moved forward. Three ships targeted the same beast this time but their attack was foiled when it was sent back at them and took out their front cannons.

* * *

"Alright guys! I know this shouldn't be too much of a hassle for you but I still want you to be careful! And remember what I said about the killing!"

"Speak for yourself brat. You're the one that better be careful. You're still more fragile than us in that form, unless you want to start off strong and use sage mode." said Kurama.

"Nah, sage mode might be overkill, I'll be fine! Come on, it's _me_ we're talking about!"

All the Biju, including Shukaku who could hear their conversation through their connection turned around to just stare at him with a deadpan expressions. They all know that he likes to mess around and not take things too seriously and he's usually the one who pays for it, so they were wholly unconvinced by his bravado.

"Screw you guys! I know what I'm doing! I don't need you judging me!" Naruto was about to jump off the end of the bridge he was on until he felt a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. He turned around to see who it was but there was no one directly behind him and the hand was still on his shoulder so he began to freak out. "There's a severed hand on my shoulder! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!"

The Biju could tell it was the woman, Nico Robin, who was trying to get Naruto's attention as they could feel her energy and see she had her arms crossed in front of her with an amused smile on her face from his panic attack. The Biju just turned around to begin engaging their enemies, leaving Naruto to her.

"You're quite amusing, aren't you Naruto-san?"

"Get it…! Huh?" Naruto turned around from hearing Robin's voice and saw her staring at him with a smile on her face and her arms crossed in front of her. He finally put two and two together and realized it was most likely her doing this. "Um, is this _your_ hand?"

"That's correct. I ate the Hana-Hana Fruit, I am a flower woman."

"Flower…? Ohh, I get it. You can 'bloom' in different places, right?"

"More or less."

"Thank god! I really thought I was being haunted or something by a possessed hand… So, uh, was there something you needed?"

"I was just trying to stop you from going out there. It's too dangerous, there are at least one thousand soldiers on each of those ships. Your… _friends,_ look like they can handle themselves but you would be safer if you stayed here."

"I appreciate the concern, but there's no way I'm letting those guys hog all the action. They'll just call me a wimp or a lazy ass and hold it over me for who knows how long, and I just can't let that happen. My pride and dignity as a man and shinobi are on the line!"

"That is hardly something to risk your life over."

"Haha, don't worry, I'll be just fine. I gave my word that I would handle this Buster Call and I intend to keep it." Naruto then turned to Spandam who was still on his knees on the ground and spoke to him. "You though, you're coming with _me._ "

"W-what? Why?"

"You're getting a front row view." Naruto grabbed Spandam and jumped onto the ocean to run to the only ship that hadn't been engaged yet which happened to be between Kokuo and Saiken, leaving Robin behind to see him off. Unknown to Naruto though, Robin was using her powers to also watch and listen to what Naruto would do. She continued to hold her arms in her normal pose when using her powers and bloomed an ear on the back of his jacket and an eye on the front to get a first person view of what he would do or say.

She had to admit to herself that she found him very intriguing. The power he had to destroy the Gates of Justice and bring out these beasts from within his own body was astounding. Even watching him run on the ocean was something she was not expecting and proved to her that he was not a Devil Fruit user. But what caught her interest the most were the bits and pieces of conversation she heard from him. She remembers when he spoke to CP9, calling them brats and even referring to her and the Straw Hat crew to be kids. He was talking as if he were much older than all of them, even though he doesn't look to be any older than his mid-twenties. And when that two tailed cat had spoken about how old they were for acting like children, it made her even more curious about what age they could be. She had an instinctual feeling that these beasts were most likely hundreds of years old, but did that mean the same for Naruto? She couldn't help the archaeological side of herself of wanting to uncover his secrets. What can she say, the study of antiquity gets her curious.

* * *

Shukaku being the first to get to his targeted ship did not hesitate to board it as he punched holes into the side of the vessel and began to climb up and engage the soldiers manning it. This ship had no Vice-Admiral so he was against regular soldiers of various ranks. They immediately began to open fire with their rifles but the bullets had no effect on Shukaku as his sand just absorbed the metal balls into his body. The soldiers stood in a bit of fear seeing their attack have no effect on the beast, and what made the fear worse was when Shukaku gave a frightening smile, which admittedly would be frightening no matter what.

Shukaku inhaled deeply and fired the hundreds of metal bullets within him in a rapid fire, purposely aiming just over their heads as he would indeed listen to Naruto and avoid killing these soldiers here. His attack had far more power behind it than any Marine rifle would as the bullets easily cut through the giant mast of the ship and riddled the upper deck with an uncountable number of holes. The Marines took cover from the attack by diving on the ground and when it was over, they looked above them as they could hear the ominous creaking of the mast breaking under its weight. They began yelling out to their comrades to get out of the way as the mast finally crashed down behind them, toppling over the second mast behind it and crushing the central structure on top of the ship. Shukaku was just getting started, he may not be allowed to kill anyone right now but scaring them half to death was just as fun for the mad One Tailed Beast.

* * *

Several ships down from Shukaku, Chomei was the next to arrive at a warship, his ability to fly getting him there sooner. Chomei first flew around his ship just to intimidate the soldiers a bit causing many to panic and begin to fire at the giant beetle. Their guns had no effect as his armored carapace was too thick to cause damage, and the canons they fired at Chomei were deflected by his stinger or blown away by his wings. While going around the ship one more time Chomei released his scale powder to temporarily blind the soldiers below him. He then moved swiftly in a dive and swatted away many soldiers with his stinger as some crashed into the ship or went flying overboard into the ocean. He flew up and went down again for another strike and managed to knock back some more soldiers but his stinger was stopped by the leader of this ship with his katana.

This leader looked to be more laid back than his counterparts but he did exude a powerful presence, so it was safe to assume this was one of the Vice-Admirals they were told would be here. He wore an orange suit with a high-ranking officer's coat over it while smoking a cigar. He has a broad chin covered by a beard with a perpetual smile spread across his face and he kept his eyes closed. Chomei figured that this Vice-Admiral could most likely use Observation Haki and didn't need to use his eyes to sense him, but even so Chomei was not done yet.

* * *

Kurama had been eager to get into the fight, so he made a beeline for the far ship on the right to get started. Four of the ships on that side saw his aggressive charge and immediately started to aim their cannons towards Kurama. Their bombardment didn't work out for them as he evaded their attacks fairly easily, since he as well as Matatabi are the most agile of the Biju; it was child's play to avoid being hit. When he was close enough he leaped onto the deck of the ship and released another roar in front of the Marines which the shear force of it knocked many of them back and a few overboard the ship. Unfortunately for Kurama there was no Vice-Admiral on this ship so he had to make do with the soldiers in front of him.

More Marines came pouring out from the lower decks to engage Kurama as many fired their guns and the few captains brave enough engaged him with their swords. He set his tails to work immediately and began knocking back Marines and parrying sword strikes. When he knocked a few Marines off balance he used his claws to swipe at them, breaking some of their swords and giving several shallow cuts on their torsos, taking them out of the fight. He was really putting the fear of the Tailed Beasts into the Marines.

Kurama then heard the arming of cannons to his left from the ship that was meant for Gyuki but he had yet to arrive. He heard the order to fire and saw that the ship next to them was opening fire on them, this shocked many of the Marines that one of their own ships would fire on them even though they knew their primary target was the beast that boarded them. Kurama could see how far these World Government officer's would go, even sacrificing their own men to win. As the cannon balls were sailing their way the Marines were shocked at what the beast did, which essentially saved their lives. Kurama breathed out a widespread stream of fire that caused all the cannon balls to explode before they hit the ship, but he didn't stop as he blew the flames further just to show that he did not take kindly to such an act. The flames did not directly hit the ship but they set the sails and masts aflame, essentially grounding the ship on the ocean with no sails to move it forward.

* * *

After the Biju left Naruto behind with Nico Robin, Isobu immediately dove beneath the ocean to get to his designated ship. The Biju were taking the ships in order from left to right, but leaving one of the middle ships for Naruto, so Isobu aimed for the third ship from the left. He didn't really enjoy the spotlight so he wanted to end things quickly. Another part of him just wanted to explore this world's ocean for a bit to see how different it was compared to the other oceans he's seen. As he swam beneath the waters he had to evade some cannon balls that were sinking beneath the waves. When Isobu came just before the bow of the ship, he used his Shadow Stroke to attack the vessel from underneath.

The soldiers manning the ship had no idea what hit it. The ship shook violently and they soon heard from the bottom deck that the warship was quickly taking on water. Isobu's deadly spiked barrel roll completely destroyed the keel of the ship from underneath from front to back. Within a few minutes the front of the ship was already sinking with the rear following suit shortly, the Marines were in utter panic, unsure of what to do. With no Vice-Admiral aboard the ship the few captains ordered their Marines to abandon it while throwing out as many inflatable life rafts as they could. The Marines on either warship next to the sinking ship threw out some of their own rafts to help by order of their Vice-Admirals. Isobu also made sure to avoid casualties and kept an eye out for anyone sinking with the ship, including a few Devil Fruit users who were sinking like stones. He saved them by using low powered water bullets to shoot anyone out of the ocean and towards a life raft where their comrades could fish them out of the water.

* * *

Matatabi took similar action to Kurama as she ran towards her ship, but whereas he was eager for a fight, Matatabi just wanted to run in the open air for a bit, and just like Kurama she too had to evade cannon fire as many were aimed at her. She was enjoying herself so she stayed on the ocean for a bit longer, continuously dodging cannon fire as the Marines were just wasting their ammunition trying to take down the two-tailed feline. She eventually decided to take action as she released a few dozen blue flaming mice, and they all ran a short distance over the ocean to reach their targets. Matatabi was aiming for the cannons on the ships nearest to her, and when the mice reached their destination they all exploded simultaneously taking out dozens of cannons, rendering them useless.

With a portion of their firepower gone, Matatabi finally went to fight on the top deck of the second ship. She was met by the usual armed Marines as they tried to take her down, their bullets had no real effect on her and she easily fought off sword users with her own razor sharp claws. She used her tails to swipe away several Marines and used her claws to strike down on a couple of sword users and her claws managed to break right through them. She went in for a second strike with her claws to take the unarmed men out but she was intercepted by another sword user using two swords.

This was another Vice-Admiral, she could tell because of the strength he possessed, as well as the fact that he did not hesitate to engage her like many others did before him. This man wore a green suit and officer's coat over it, and he wore a Marine hat, but his hat was several feet tall showing that he had an abnormally tall head. His eyes were half closed and he had a long beard and wielded two sabers as he held Matatabi back. She was curious to see how well one of these Vice-Admirals fought but she would take her time with this one, as she wanted to gather information, mostly for Naruto's benefit as he would be fighting more of these men in the future.

* * *

Kokuo arrived a short distance before her ship moments after Matatabi arrived at hers, and wasted little time. She readied herself as steam started emitting from her body. Once she generated enough steam she ran straight for the ship in a charge and rammed it head first, using her Unrivaled Strength, actually causing it to fly a short distance back and crash back into the ocean. The ship continued to stay upright but many Marines were sent overboard from the impact. Once it landed she stopped using her Boil Release and quickly leaped up onto the deck to fight the soldiers that were left.

Her tails immediately swung around wildly, knocking back the Marines charging at her. Her hide was thick enough that their bullets couldn't pierce through, so their firearms were ineffective. She charged at a group of Marines once again aiming her horns low to ram them but before she could hit them someone stopped her. This man wore a red suit underneath his officer's coat and sported several cross shaped scars across his face and neck. He was holding a sword across Kokuo's horns stopping her in her tracks. She as well could tell this was one of the Vice-Admirals leading the Buster Call as he was much stronger than the other Marines on the ship.

It was impressive that he was able to hold her back, but he wouldn't for very long. Kokuo smirked as she began to release her steam again. The Vice-Admiral raised an eyebrow, not really impressed by the steam, but then his eyes widened as she suddenly began her charge again, easily pushing him back. She rammed him through the first mast on the ship, breaking right through it as it fell forward and rolled into the ocean. She continued her charge and crashed through the central structure, destroying a large portion of it as well as the second mast, and crashed through the back and launching the Vice-Admiral through the final mast, leaving the ship useless to sail any longer. The Vice-Admiral was hurt but he wasn't done yet as he got back up with some difficulty, Kokuo didn't mind though and was prepared for more.

* * *

Gyuki was the next to arrive at the second to last Buster Call warship, and his appearance is what made the Marines the most nervous out of the Biju. Usually any large creatures with tentacles are feared by all seafaring people, or at least they are the source of many negative superstitions that never end well for sailors. Unfortunately for these Marines this old wives tale would pretty much end up with a similar result. What made things worse is that their sails were completely burned by that fox that was fighting their comrades on the ship next to them so there would be no way to escape.

Gyuki approached the ship calmly while lazily deflecting canon fire with his tentacles. As he approached, the Marines began to panic and focused their canon and gun fire heavily on Gyuki in order to drive him away, but his skin was too thick for their bullets and he was fast enough to continue deflecting their canon balls. He could feel their urgency rising as he got closer and finally began crawling his way up the front of the ship in order to board it. When he boarded the ship and the Marines realized their firearms were useless, they took out their swords to try and fight him head on. But before they moved to engage him they were stopped by their commander as he walked through them and spoke.

"You are all a disgrace to the Marines. Every last one of you. You _never_ show fear in front of your enemy. It just means you have already lost the battle. Because of this failure, when this is over and if you aren't dead, I want all your resignations on Sengoku's desk the moment we get back. None of you are fit to be Marines."

All the Marines on the deck of the ship just stood there in shock of their commander. They couldn't believe they would have to give up their life of a Marine and soldiers of the World Government just for showing fear to a beast that would rightfully scare anyone. No one could say anything because they feared a worse punishment, since Vice-Admiral Onigumo was one of the hardliners for absolute justice and wouldn't hesitate to kill a subordinate. They were all taken out of their stupor when the beast itself actually spoke up for them.

"You would punish your subordinates for something so trivial as showing fear to an enemy? This World Government really does need a lesson in leadership." For a moment no one spoke, not quite believing any of these beasts could talk so they were still trying to process that it could indeed speak, until the Vice-Admiral spoke up.

"… You beasts can speak?"

"Of course we can."

"Which one of you destroyed the Gates of Justice?"

"That would be our brother and the one we follow, but he is not like us. He is human, and the _real_ one you have to look out for."

"If that is true then he is no human. He is a monster that must be put down for defying absolute justice. Destroying those gates is a declaration of war on the World Government."

"I don't think he really cares about that, but the only monsters that we can see here are those who blindly follow your World Government's foolish leaders."

"Creatures like you couldn't possibly understand the concept of true justice."

"It is your own government that doesn't understand the meaning of justice."

"Hmph, there is no point talking to an animal."

"My thoughts exactly."

Onigumo grabbed two sabers from his waist with his hands and from behind him, six spider like arms that grew from his hair came out each holding a saber of their own. The Vice-Admiral quickly engaged the eight tailed Biju, but he would find it would be a far more difficult battle than he would want to believe.

* * *

Calmly approaching the fourth warship was Son Goku, he wasn't really looking forward to this little skirmish, but being able to show these humans his prowess wasn't something he would pass up. He looked on as his siblings were just getting started or in some cases had already finished their fights. Overall he wasn't really impressed with these humans' way of fighting; especially when they first started to bombard them from afar without any sort of provocation. He thought it was cowardly, but it wouldn't be the first time he thought so lowly of humans.

As he got to the ship he climbed his way up the front to get aboard and all the Marines on the deck opened fire with their rifles and pistols unloading a barrage of bullets. Son just held up one of his arms to block his face but they otherwise didn't do anything to harm him. When they took out their swords is when Son was more pumped to fight. He let out another roar in their faces and charged forward knocking away everyone in front of him with his arms and tails. One very tall and strong looking Marine tried to take him on, thinking his strength was superior, but he found that it wasn't when he was punched through the mast of the ship. The mast was falling towards Son but he was able to catch it, and with his strength he plunged it into the ship, stabbing it deep within the lower decks. The ship was now sporting its forward mast at a forward angle making it look like it had a horn sticking out.

When Son went to engage them further, another person walked out in front of him several feet away impeding his path. From the coat he wore and the stronger feeling Son was getting from this one, he could tell it was one of those Vice-Admirals. This man had the sides of his head shaved while sporting a mohawk and mustache. He wore a white and purple pinstripe suit and carried a katana with him that he pulled out to face Son Goku. Son finally felt that he would get a better challenge out of this one and was actually looking forward to this battle now.

* * *

Saiken was the last of the Biju to get to his designated ship, taking his time at a leisurely pace. Like Isobu, Saiken didn't really want any of the spotlight so he wasn't going to take too long with this one. The canon fire coming at him began to annoy the giant slug and when he got close enough he sprayed a stream of acid on all the canons of the ship that immediately melted the front of their barrels, making them useless. Saiken began slowly crawling up the front of the ship to get on the deck to quickly put an end to this.

The six tailed beast never really enjoyed killing, so when Naruto had told them not to kill anyone he was rather relieved and decided to use a non lethal attack to defeat these soldiers. Over his many years, Saiken has developed many forms of attacks using different chemical compounds that he has come in contact with, learning to recreate them from his own body. He could make chemical attacks ranging from the extremely lethal to the mildly irritating. Now thinking of one such compound, Saiken inhaled deeply and blew out a cloud of orange gas that completely enveloped the entire ship, making sure his attack seeped into the lower levels of the ship, so everyone aboard was affected.

None of the soldiers new what hit them, but it hit them hard. The first reaction they gave was a burning of the eyes, so much so that many started yelling out in pain trying to rub their eyes to make it go away. When they inhaled the gas, things became worse. Everyone experienced a shortness of breath as it felt like their lungs were burning and many others began to vomit as their stomachs couldn't take it. The gas didn't linger for too long but the damage was already done. These Marines wouldn't die from the gas but they would be in quite some pain for the next couple of hours.

* * *

After running across the ocean for a few minutes, Naruto made it to the only ship that had yet to be engaged and jumped onto the deck. As he landed, he dropped Spandam and making sure he stayed put, he grew a stockade that connected to the ship while it kept his head and hands tightly secured. There was no way to open the stockade as it was all one piece of wood that gave Spandam no room to try and escape, so he had no choice but to stand there and watch everything. Of course that didn't stop him from yelling at all the Marines on the ship to try and save him, and as there were no Vice-Admirals aboard this ship he was technically the highest ranking officer there.

"Quick, kill him and save me! He's in control of all of those beasts and was the one to destroy the gates! If you kill him then the rest will fall! Hurry up!"

The Marines didn't hesitate and immediately began attacking Naruto, but since Spandam was right next to him they didn't fire their guns so not to risk hitting their commander. They came at him with swords and fists and other types of weapons to try and quickly kill him. Unfortunately, these Marines just weren't anywhere close to his level and Naruto easily defended himself and countered their attacks. Within a few minutes over thirty Marines were either unconscious or on the floor groaning in pain from the beating they were given. As more Marines began to surround him they were looking at him more warily trying to find an opening while Naruto stood there in a defensive stance waiting for more to attack him. They were starting to take too long to attack for Naruto so he decided to go on the offensive.

The Marines were so concentrated on Naruto that they were all surprised when he suddenly disappeared, and a large group of them were simultaneously knocked back. From that point on Naruto was just a blur as he ran through everyone around him taking them down in one or two shots. He didn't stop at just the upper deck, he took his rampage to the lower decks going through every room defeating everyone along the way. Naruto was a little too reckless as he accidentally set off an explosive near the ammunition storage and blew up a giant chunk off the rear of the ship. He managed to save anyone from getting killed by quickly using his wood release to cover everyone near the explosion including himself.

* * *

Robin was watching everything from Naruto's perspective. She couldn't see much except for when he slowed down on occasion to look at his handiwork. She _could_ however, hear all the pained cries of the soldiers, the sounds of fists, feet, and bodies hitting, and the sounds of bones breaking. She could clearly tell that these Marines were heavily outclassed. She knows the heavy hitters of her own crew, in Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji, could handle this much, as they proved earlier as they ran their own gauntlet of fights with the Marines and World Government agents. However, she felt that, aside from the destructive attack he unleashed on the gates, this man's physical capabilities were also on a different level from her three strongest crew members. As far as she could tell, he sustained no injuries, and wasn't even fatigued or breathing hard after moving and fighting so fast.

She was surprised when a giant explosion went off, and thought he might have been severely hurt or killed since her vision suddenly went black. She noticed that she wasn't in any pain though as any part of her body that she blooms can be injured and cause her real body pain. She could definitely hear the ringing in her ears though, as he was near the epicenter of the explosion but she wasn't in any real pain. She became a bit relieved as she saw a wall of wood open up to the sunlight, showing that he had managed to shield himself with that unique wood ability.

Another group of Marines came from behind in the lower levels to try and sneak attack him but he was well aware of his surroundings and he beat them off soundly. After about twenty minutes of fighting it looked like his battle was over, and from what she could see from her own vantage point on the bridge, those beasts that he released were finished as well, as they began to approach him. From what she could see, none of the warships looked to be in any condition to sail. Many of their masts were destroyed, three of them were sunk outright as she could see many life boats on the ocean with them still pulling out their men. She never thought there would be a day where a Buster Call could be defeated, let alone so thoroughly.

She observed a little longer and watched and listened as the Biju stood in front of Naruto and conversed rather animatedly with each other for several minutes and was glad to hear that the Buster Call was truly over, without them even getting a chance to bombard the island itself. After a few moments, dread suddenly filled her as she heard a distinct voice and the famous expression that she could never forget.

" _Arara…"_

"(gasp) No. No no no no no."

""ROBIN!"" Robin was cut off from her sudden panic attack as her concentration was broken and the eye and ear she had on Naruto faded away into flower pedals.

* * *

It wasn't too long after the explosion, that Naruto had defeated everyone on the ship. By this time all the Biju were already finished with their ships as well and they joined back with Naruto at the rear of the ship where the giant hole was and he was just sitting on one of the lower decks looking out at the ocean.

"Did you all enjoy yourselves?"

"I sure as hell did, even though I couldn't kill anyone. I crushed some bones and left a bunch of them in sand coffins. Hahaha! It was hilarious! It'll take them hours to dig each other out!"

"Did you at least give them some air to breathe?"

"Yeah yeah, they can breathe just fine."

"Good. What's wrong with you Kurama? Why are you sulking?"

"Haha! It's because he didn't get to fight anyone strong." said Gyuki.

"All I had was a bunch of weaklings. I asked Gyuki to give me his fight but he wouldn't let me!"

"You were practically finished with your ship by the time I started on mine. And besides, he had eight arms and I have eight tails, I thought it was fitting."

"Wait, didn't you sink your ship? If they were so weak why did you feel it necessary to sink the whole thing."

"Cause they just kept coming and coming to annoy me with their weakness. I got tired of it and cracked the ship in half, so what?"

"We still gotta control that temper of yours."

"Bite me."

"No thanks, too much fur. Isobu, I noticed you took care of yours in no time at all. Were you really in a hurry to go exploring?"

"… Maybe." Isobu just sank lower into the water to avoid eye contact, embarrassed he was so easily found out.

"Anyone have any interesting encounters?"

"The Vice-Admirals are very strong. Far stronger than their subordinates, the difference in strength is quite substantial." said Kokuo, she didn't elaborate further as she was only making an observation. The others who fought a Vice-Admiral in Matatabi, Son Goku, Chomei, and Gyuki were all in agreement as their fights with the superior officers were much more challenging than their fights with the lower tier Marines.

"The one I fought was an extremist of their government. Kept saying things about absolute justice, and how the ends justify the means. He wasn't above shooting his own men if he thought they were out of line. I thought about killing him but I held myself back. But I made sure he'll be out of commission for some time." said Gyuki.

"That was pretty much the same with mine. He also said things about absolute justice, and the like. Not a very compassionate man." said Kokuo.

"I see. So there's a lot of people in their government like Spandam. Probably means it goes even higher in the ranks too. Bunch of idiots."

"The man I fought, wasn't all that bad. He had some concern over his subordinates at least. Wasn't too arrogant from what I could tell." said Matatabi.

"At least that means they're not all bad apples. I'd hate to believe that every single person in this government is a complete asshole."

"Arara."

The Biju in front of Naruto moved aside to allow the newcomer to be in view of Naruto. They knew he was coming as they could feel the power he held from miles away, but they didn't need him or his government to know that they could sense them coming. The less they knew about their abilities the better. The man was very tall with a short Afro, tan skinned, wearing a white vest and pants with a purple buttoned shirt. He was riding a bike along an icy road that he created. From the moment he stopped in front of them, the ice was spreading out freezing the surrounding ocean including the legs of the Biju who were standing on it but they made no move making the man think he had them trapped, as they knew Naruto wanted to handle this. They could all see his eyes roaming to get a good look at all the Biju in front of him but his expression never changed to show that he was surprised or worried. Then his eyes fell to Naruto being the only human that was actually interacting with these beasts.

"This is a surprise. To think the first time anyone tried to take on a Buster Call, it would be so utterly defeated."

"Don't worry, no one's dead. Yet."

"Hmm. I suppose I should thank you for that. Should be less paperwork. Who are you?"

"Uzumaki Naruto! A great and powerful sage come to spread peace and good will to all!" He said in an overly grandiose fashion with a grin on his face and arms spread out wide.

"Is that supposed to be funny. From my view you have just declared war on the World Government, and prevented the capture of a dangerous woman that must be brought to justice. Where is your so called peace in this?"

"Some lessons must be learned the hard way I'm afraid. And I'm sorry, but Nico Robin has endured enough crimes against her in her lifetime by your World Government. I cannot allow anymore to befall her."

" _She_ is the criminal here."

"What crime could an eight year old child commit to deserve a bounty of seventy-nine million?"

"…"

"Your silence is _very_ compelling, I'm totally convinced."

"You don't know what that woman is capable of, what she's after."

"I doesn't matter, you're not touching her or her friends."

"What is your relation to the Straw Hat Pirates? You weren't with them the last time I encountered them."

"I'm not a part of their crew if that's what you're asking. In fact, I haven't even met any of them aside from Robin, and I just met her today. And I'm sorry to say, but I'm not looking to join them either. I have my own agenda that probably doesn't coincide with theirs."

"And what is this agenda of yours?"

"You'll find out soon enough. You know, I didn't catch your name."

"Aokiji, Marine Admiral."

"Really? One of the big guns huh? That's interesting. Now, you have two options here. You can turn around, go back to your headquarters, call for a recovery team to take back all those who are stranded here, tell your superiors everything you saw, report the complete failure of the Buster Call and failure to capture Nico Robin, and you can go ahead and report me while you're at it, and this whole incident will be over. _Or_ , you can stay here, _try_ to go after Nico Robin, get stopped by me, fight me, get beaten, and _then_ go back to your headquarters, call for a recovery team, tell your superiors everything you saw here, report the complete failure of the Buster Call and failure to capture Nico Robin, report me and every which way I kicked your ass, and _then_ this whole incident will be over. I personally would take the first option, but that's just me. Less painful that way."

"You really enjoy the sound of your voice don't you?"

"Well, I _do_ have a lovely voice don't I?"

"… Ice Time."

* * *

""ROBIN!"" Robin turned around only to be wrapped in a bear hug by Nami and Chopper, both of which were happily crying after finally having their friend back. Zoro, Sanji, Sogeking, Franky, Kokoro, Chimney, and her rabbit Gonbe were coming from behind ready to greet her as well, especially Sanji as he was running towards her with hearts in his eyes.

"Robin-chwaaan!" Robin was glad to see them all again but she had to cut the reunion short as there was currently a bigger issue that had to be addressed.

"Everyone, please listen!" Everyone could hear the seriousness in her voice so they paid extra attention to what she had to say. "There's big trouble!"

"What is it Robin? Is it the Buster Call, is it still coming?" said Nami.

"No, our abrupt ally and his friends actually seemed to have taken care of it but…"

"What is it?" said Zoro.

"It's Aokiji, he's here."

""AOKIJI!"" yelled out Nami, Sogeking, and Chopper.

"Shit, that guy's here. None of us could touch him last time, and all of us are beat up right now." said Sanji.

"Did you see him? Where is he?" said Zoro.

"I didn't exactly see him, but I heard him, I know that voice anywhere, and look, the ocean is beginning to freeze. He is confronting that man who helped me. Just beyond the warships."

"How could you hear him from that far?" asked Nami.

"I was using my powers to spy on this Naruto while he fought, and I just heard Aokiji's voice before you all came here."

"Oh, sorry. I guess we distracted you huh?"

"It's fine, it would have made no difference anyway."

"What do we do, what do we do?!" exclaimed Sogeking as he started freaking out.

"There's nothing we _can_ do. We saw what that man did to those enormous gates. If there's anyone who can take on a monster like Aokiji it has to be that guy. Cuz if he fails then we're screwed either way, none of us can take on an Admiral in our condition, and Luffy's fight isn't over yet. All we can do is wait." said Zoro.

Everyone was a little uncomfortable and tense as they didn't like the idea of leaving someone who helped them with a monster like Aokiji, but Zoro was right; they weren't ready for someone like an Admiral.

* * *

Aokiji suddenly appeared behind Naruto with a hand on his shoulder seemingly completely freezing him on the spot as his entire body was encased in ice. Kurama thought it was funny as they all heard him laugh.

"Haha! Brings back memories doesn't it Naruto?" The ice surrounding Naruto started cracking as wafts of steam began to emit from his body as he was getting help from Kokuo. The majority of the Biju's chakra was still within him so he still had access to their abilities. Soon the ice completely shattered leaving him unharmed.

"Not any good ones. Why don't you guys hop back in? I'll take care of this one."

"Hmph. Always taking the good fights for yourself."

"Come on Kurama, for any fight to be good for you you'd have to hold back anyway." said Matatabi.

"Whatever, I feel like taking a nap."

"Don't worry Kurama, this world is huge, you'll get plenty of chances."

Aokiji was a little surprised his attack didn't work, which must mean this man was far more powerful then he first thought. He turned and listened to their conversation, talking as if he wasn't even there, which kind of irked him as well. Then he saw all nine of these beasts suddenly break down into wisps of energy that floated towards the man that was still just sitting there on the broken deck right next to him. He saw as the energy flowed into him and the presence of each beast completely vanished from his senses, which should be impossible since he could feel the power emanating from each one, and they weren't weak.

"How can those monsters be inside you?"

"Those _monsters_ are my family, call them that again and you won't be getting out of here under your own power. They have more humanity in them then some humans, which I'm sure you can personally attest to."

"Yes, I've seen thousands of the worst criminals brought to justice, many by me personally. Just like I'm about to do to you."

"The criminals weren't the ones I was talking about."

Aokiji remained silent for a moment having a sense of what Naruto may be referring to, but he couldn't speak out against the nobles because of his position in the World Government. "You realize I cannot allow you to roam free from here."

"Yeah, I think I got that when you tried to freeze me. Well, don't let me keep you from trying to do your job. You can start again any time you're ready."

Aokiji did not hesitate as he tried to freeze Naruto again with the intent to break his frozen body before he had a chance to get out this time. Naruto was a step ahead of him however as he was quickly gone from his spot on the broken deck and out on the frozen ocean facing the Admiral. Soon after, Aokiji formed four tridents made of ice floating in front of him and launched them at Naruto. Naruto dodged them by jumping away but as soon as he landed Aokiji was right in front of him, aiming to grab him and freeze him again. Naruto evaded him and threw a punch in his gut but was a bit surprised when his hand entered his body without damage and Aokiji grabbed hold of his wrist with both hands as his ice began spreading.

"You can't escape me twice."

"You'll come to learn I can be very stubborn. Now, take a deep breath." Naruto inhaled deeply and let out an intense stream of fire at point blank range aimed at the Admiral's upper body. The ice immediately began melting away and as he felt Aokiji's grip fall he stopped the stream of fire and saw a cloud of ice forming a short distance away seeing the Admiral come into shape.

"I was not aware there was another Devil Fruit with fire properties."

"I'm sure there are a lot of things you're not aware of."

This time Aokiji made an Ice Saber in his hands deciding to fight Naruto and defeat him that way. Aokiji launched at Naruto swinging his saber trying to defeat him but Naruto's speed made it easy enough for him to evade all his strikes. Naruto figured that he must be a Logia type Devil Fruit user that Hancock and her sisters told him about, since he couldn't hit him directly without some sort of boost. He didn't want to reveal his sage modes this soon so he decided to try out a different method to see if it would work.

Naruto began generating Yin Release throughout his body, hoping that it would have the same effect of Haki, in which the sisters also told him was capable of being used to fight Logia users as well. He soon found his hunch to be correct as he evaded another strike and went in for a sweeping kick that knocked the Admiral on his back. This surprised Aokiji even more since that kick should have just passed through him but he instead was laid out on the ice he created. Since Naruto's spiritual energy was being heightened through Yin Release it allowed him to be able to fight back, but unlike sage mode it wouldn't drain a Devil Fruit user of their powers, so he still had that little trump card to play if he needed it.

' _This kid can use Haki, at_ his _age?'_

As Aokiji stood up, he now knew he had to be more serious about this fight; if his opponent can fully utilize Haki to fight back then he was even more dangerous than he realized. He couldn't afford to play around with him like he did with the Straw Hats, but still, he noticed that Naruto didn't take advantage of his downed position to try and finish him, so he knew he was being underestimated.

"Why didn't you attack me when you had the advantage?"

"I don't wanna kick a man when he's down. That's just rude."

"You won't get another chance like that again."

"We'll see about that." Naruto took out a kunai for each hand so that it would be easier to engage the Admiral's sword, and soon after they renewed their fight.

The two veteran soldiers engaged each other at an even higher speed than before as they clashed on the ice appearing in different spots within moments. Aokiji was getting frustrated because after each clash he put more speed and strength behind each new encounter, but this boy was keeping up with him easily. Naruto decided that he wanted to keep as much of his strength in the dark from the World Government as he could so he just wanted to match the Admiral hit for hit and win a battle of attrition.

Their fight brought them between two of the warships that were stuck in the frozen ocean and they continued to attack and counter each other. Naruto's kunai began freezing since their early clashes and after a few more strikes the blades finally shattered. Aokiji thought he had an opening and went for an overhead strike. Naruto suddenly went inside his guard and delivered a heavy spin kick to his midsection. Aokiji yelled in pain as he was sent crashing straight through the side of a warship and out on the other side bouncing and skidding along the ice and finally hitting the outer hull of another warship. Naruto was soon to follow and appeared before him as he was standing up.

As soon as Aokiji was on his feet Naruto was once again in front of him and punched him and broke through the hull where they began fighting again inside the ship. Many of the soldiers who were barely regaining their bearings from their fight with one of the Biju were surprised as their ship was rocked with massive shock waves and was being frozen and destroyed from the inside as the Admiral and his unknown assailant continued to fight. Their fighting ended up cracking the warship in half, rendering it useless, but since the ocean was frozen the ship wouldn't sink for some time.

They fought like this for a while, exchanging blows, as their fight moved them to other ships and those too were destroyed even more throughout their fight. They finally ended up on their fifth ship on the top deck and backed away from each other to catch their breaths. Naruto was sporting a few cuts on his chest and arms and a gash over his brow, that were frozen over from Aokiji's sword, and unknowingly, to Aokiji, had already healed, but other than that he was still ready to continue. On the surface, Aokiji was just showing some scuff marks, but what they couldn't see beneath his clothing was some bad bruising on his skin, including a few of his ribs that made it hard for him to breathe. He was breathing heavily and in some pain even though he wouldn't show it on his face. This was easily one of the hardest fights he has been in since he was a young captain patrolling the seas, no one since then has ever pushed him this far.

"Who are you?"

"Didn't we have this conversation?"

"There's no way someone as strong as you could have stayed off the World Government's radar for as long as you have. Why show yourself now?"

"I have recently been made aware of several severe injustices made by your government."

"Nico Robin."

"She isn't the only one."

"Idealism has no place in this world."

"Do you really believe that, or is that what your superiors tell you?"

"… Our government exists to enforce justice."

"You mean to spread fear. I hear there's a revolution going on. Did you ever wonder _why_ that is?"

"Are you part of the Revolutionary Army?"

"No. But I think they have the right idea. There's something wrong with your government, and I'm not the only one who sees it."

"Do you think you can fight the World Government on your own?"

"I think I'm doing pretty good right now!"

"I am not the entirety of the World Government. There will be others standing in your way."

"I can handle them."

"… Show me."

In an unspoken agreement, the two fighters appeared a distance away from the warships on the frozen ocean knowing this would be their final clash and not wanting to cause unneeded casualties. They could feel each other generating a ridiculous amount of power and Naruto saw what looked to be an enormous bird made of ice forming above the Admiral. Naruto was still matching the power output of Aokiji and then raised his right hand to perform one of his signature techniques. A massive rasengan formed within moments, matching the size of the frozen bird above his hand, but he wasn't done just yet. Soon after, four big ball rasengans began orbiting the giant rasengan as if they were moons orbiting a planet.

Aokiji looked on with a serious expression as he didn't know what to make of this man. _'He attacked me with fire earlier, but this just looks like pure energy. A Devil Fruit should not give someone two separate abilities. What_ is _he?'_

* * *

The Straw Hats and their friends could hear the clashes and see the extra damage taken on the warships by those two scary individuals. They couldn't believe someone was actually keeping up with that monster in Aokiji. Seeing one of those giant ships crumbling apart from just a brief exchange really opened their eyes to just how powerful these two men are. Robin was still on edge as the Admirals have always frightened her, but hearing how long this fight was going for, gave her some hope that Naruto was at least holding his own.

Suddenly they heard a giant crash coming from behind them as they turned around to see the back tower holding the bridge they were on explode upward. They had to shield themselves and bat away some falling rock and debris from the sudden destruction of the tower behind them. They soon saw someone falling from the sky among the debris, but they weren't moving as they crashed down onto the bridge in front of them. After the dust settled, they saw that it was the strongest member of CP9, Rob Lucci, unconscious and beaten. Seeing him there, the Straw Hat Crew raced to the other end of the now broken bridge to see Luffy face down on one of the lower levels of the tower.

The Straw Hats immediately began calling out to their captain trying to see if he was okay. He was able to respond back letting them know he was at least conscious but he couldn't move. They kept trying to rally him but to no avail. Nami then got distracted by Chimney and Gonbe as they spoke out.

"Oooh! Look at the big ball and the big birdie! Pretty!"

"Nyaa nyaa nyaa!"

Nami turned around and her eyes went wide as she saw the two massive attacks in the distance. Then she noticed something else, the ice on the ocean was spreading further towards them at a faster rate and the air around them was getting cold. She started to panic a bit as she turned to yell at Luffy.

"Luffy! Hurry and get up! If we don't move now Aokiji is going to freeze the entire ocean and we'll be trapped here! So quit messing around and get up already!"

The others turned around to see what Nami was talking about, and some of them began to panic. Even though they were far away, seeing those two attacks from this distance made some of them feel like they were trapped in a lions den. The power coming from those two was just too overwhelming. The ice was also starting to creep up quickly and they did not want to be here if the Marines sent more reinforcements.

"Huh? Aokiji is here? Shit." Luffy said tiredly, he tried to move to get up but he only fell soon after since he was so exhausted. "I'm sorry, but I can't move. Everyone take Robin and get out of here. Make sure she stays safe."

"What are you saying you idiot?! We're not just going to leave you here?!"

"How are we going to get out of here in the first place? The ocean is already starting to freeze the ship at the end of the bridge, that was our only way out. Even if Luffy could move, there's nowhere for us to go now." said Zoro.

While the others of his former crew were arguing with each other, Usopp could hear a familiar voice calling out to him. He started to cry as he quickly understood what it was telling him and he yelled out to everyone to jump to the sea. After a brief confusion and Usopp's insistence they all decided to jump to the sea as Robin used her ability to roll Luffy from the tower and throw him out to the ocean. As they were falling they were all happy to see their final companion floating out on the ocean ready to take them back.

"MERRY!" Luffy yelled out, overjoyed to see the ship that took them this far into the Grand Line. Once they were all landed and safe on top of the Going Merry, they couldn't afford to relax just yet as they had to hurry and sail away from the freezing ocean. Once they made it out from under the bridge and out to the open to circle around Enies Lobby they looked back as they heard the loud rumbling from the final impact between Aokiji and Naruto. The result of their clash led to a thick cloud of ice quickly rushing out over the ocean that soon overtook their ship. The air around them was cold and the freezing ocean just caught the rear of their ship so they were temporarily trapped, but they were otherwise unharmed.

* * *

Aokiji and Naruto stood across from each other in an intense showdown, ready to see who would come out on top in their fight. Without warning they both launched their attacks. Aokiji just stood there willing his Pheasant Beak forward while Naruto ran forward pushing his Massive Planetary Rasengan into the giant bird of ice. Aokiji had to put all his power and concentration into his attack and Naruto kept building force and pushed forward. Soon the two fighters heard the cracking of Aokiji's attack as the violently rotating rasengan was overcoming its opponent.

Both fighters let out a war cry as they pushed their attacks as hard as they could but Naruto was the one gaining momentum. Naruto made a final push and completely destroyed Aokiji's Pheasant Beak as a massive explosion took place sending ice particles flying in every direction that created a fog across the ocean. Aokiji's attack took the brunt of the explosion but he was in bad shape as he laid inside a deep crater of ice from the resulting impact. A gust of wind blew the fog away around him as he soon found Naruto's image standing over him not looking any worse for wear. He watched as his enemy kneeled next to him and a golden fire erupted from his right arm that he put on his shoulder.

"What are… you doing?" Aokiji rasped out as he was in considerable pain but he could immediately tell the pain was lessening as soon as Naruto touched him.

"Just making sure there's no permanent damage." Naruto wasn't going to completely heal Aokiji, but he didn't want to permanently disable him, he felt that this man wasn't a complete threat to the future. He stopped healing him after a short few moments, just enough that he could recover easily on his own for a few weeks, but Aokiji was still unable to stand at this point.

"Why?"

"Despite what you may think, I don't want to just destroy your World Government; even though I may just have to. I know the world can't just be left to their own devices without some sort of guidance or order. But the way your government handles things will just make things worse in the long run. This absolute justice I've been hearing about isn't any way to lead people or set an example."

Naruto was finished speaking, hoping this man would at least think on his words, he didn't think he was a bad person and would rather not have to fight him again if he could help it. He started walking away but he turned around when he heard the Admiral speak again.

"Can I get your name one more time?"

"It's Uzumaki Naruto."

"… Kuzan."

"Huh?"

"My name. It's Kuzan."

"I thought Aokiji was your name?"

"That's more of a title that was given to me. I would appreciate it if you kept it to yourself."

"Alright. I'm sure we'll meet again Kuzan. Now I gotta see how those Straw Hat kids are doing." Naruto walked into the fog of ice and out of sight of the Admiral heading towards a couple of last pieces of unfinished business.

"(sigh) Should have gone with the first option."

"Yes you should have!"

"(sigh)"

* * *

Spandam couldn't see anything with the fog all around and it was eerily quite after that last attack between Aokiji and Naruto. When he first could tell that the Admiral of ice was here, he was overjoyed that he would definitely be saved and taken to safety. He thought Aokiji would wipe the floor with this bastard in a heartbeat and this horrible nightmare would be over. Then he became nervous as their fight escalated and it was taking longer for the Admiral to finish it. He was also worried that their fight would end up on the ship he was on but fortunately for him they managed to avoid it.

He became completely terrified again when they were showing their final attacks, the memory of that giant ball of death that destroyed the gates came crashing back like a freight train as he wanted to wipe it from his mind, and he saw this new attack from the blonde. He could tell it wasn't as strong as his first but he didn't want to believe that he still had this much power left. As their attacks collided and that giant ball was breaking through, he had a sudden gut feeling that the Admiral really stood no chance.

Now he was waiting in the silent fog that covered the ship to see who came out on top, desperately hoping to see the Marine Admiral. The silence was broken as he heard footsteps coming towards him but he still couldn't see anything yet. Soon enough a figure broke through the fog to stand in front of him and it wasn't who he was hoping for. He broke out into hysterics refusing to believe the blonde man standing in front of him could overcome the might of the World Government.

"No! This can't be happening! This is impossible! There's no way you can overcome supreme justice! The World Government is invincible! I will not accept this! All of my plans! The ancient weapons! My promotion! This can't be real!"

Spandam just continued raving for a while as Naruto watched in silence as he was slowly losing it. Naruto couldn't watch anymore and Spandam was soon silenced as he gasped and felt a slight pain in his chest briefly, before his vision darkened and was soon unable to feel anything anymore.

"I'm sorry, but someone like you is too dangerous to be in a position of authority. People like you are only a detriment to the future."

Naruto removed the kunai that pierced Spandam's heart and removed the wooden shackles from the man and laid him on the deck of the ship. He didn't see another alternative to deal with him. His thoughts and ideas were too dangerous to be allowed the chance to be put into practice. He felt if he allowed him to leave, only more innocent suffering would be the result. Naruto was aware that some of the Marines were conscious but unable to do anything as they still couldn't move very well. They were unable to see what happened but they _did_ hear it.

"You can all say a silent prayer for your commander, and go ahead and tell your superiors that Uzumaki Naruto was the one responsible. I just want you to know there was only one casualty from your Buster Call here today. Your other comrades will be fine."

That was the last they heard from Uzumaki Naruto as he left their ship for one final encounter.

* * *

"Aren't you guys done yet?!" Yelled Nami to Zoro, Sanji and Franky as they were trying to break the ice that trapped the back of their ship. They weren't anywhere near a hundred percent and still exhausted so they weren't yielding good results, just barely chipping away at the frozen ocean.

"Why don't _you_ come down here and break this ice you dumb woman!"

"Don't talk to Nami-chan like that you stupid moss head!"

"You wanna go you shitty cook!"

"Strong Hammer! If only I had more cola I could melt this ice! That would be Sssuper!"

"Everyone be quiet! There's somebody coming." said Robin as she could feel someone getting closer to their ship. Everyone tensed as they now could feel someone strong headed for them. They were nervous about who it could be and Zoro, Sanji and Franky stood protectively in front of the ship just in case. Luffy wanted to go out there too but he was still unable to move, the same with Chopper as well, they were both unable to help.

"Looks like you guys are stuck here. Need some help?" Naruto appeared out of the slowly fading fog walking on the ice. Those that were up and able to see, saw Naruto standing before them, but Robin was the only one who had ever seen him so the others were still a bit on edge.

"Who are you?" asked Zoro.

"His name is Uzumaki Naruto." said Robin as she immediately recognized him.

"This is the guy who helped us save you?"

"Yes. He was there to protect me from Spandam and he broke my cuffs to release me."

"This guy also destroyed the Gates of Justice with that massive attack." said Sanji.

"And he unleashed all those beasts against the Buster Call!" said Usopp.

"Did you fight Aokiji?" asked Nami.

"Yes, yes and yes. Yes to all those things!"

"Did you beat him?"

"Of course!"

As if everyone on the Going Merry suddenly had a collective mind, they all exclaimed at once. ""What the hell are you?!""

"I'm awesome, that's the only way I can describe it." They all had sweat drops hearing him say that so casually. "You guys can use a hand right? Why don't you three hop back on the ship and I'll take care of this, and we can talk a little more."

Zoro, Sanji and Franky decided to listen to the man since they weren't getting anywhere and climbed back on the ship. They all looked overboard to see what he would do, even dragging Luffy and Chopper to poke their heads out through the railings at their insistence. They saw him hold his right fist out looking like he was concentrating, but Usopp interrupted him before he did anything.

"Um, I don't think punching it is gonna do anything. This guy was trying real hard to punch it and his fist is made of steel." said Usopp pointing at Franky.

"Don't you worry, I got it covered." Naruto had a big grin on his face as he unloaded his fist on the ice. Everyone's eyes went wide as they saw the ice crack for at least a hundred meters behind him and they felt the Going Merry break free of its prison.

""Awesome!"" Luffy, Chopper, Usopp, Franky, Chimney and Gonbe all had stars in their eyes seeing how strong Naruto is, they were easily impressed.

Naruto then jumped up onto their ship to properly greet them but both Zoro and Sanji were a bit wary of him. They know Luffy said to trust him but they remembered that their captain is an idiot and his sense of judgment isn't always right. And if this guy could take down those gates and beat Aokiji, then how could they possibly stop him if he decided to attack. Everyone introduced themselves to Naruto, so he got all their names, but everyone was a little nervous about starting a conversation with someone stronger than an Admiral, especially one who easily defeated them before.

Robin kept her eyes on Naruto, looking over his appearance. Part of her still couldn't believe anyone could handle someone like Aokiji and she noticed that Naruto wasn't sporting any injuries whatsoever. His clothes looked like they were a little cut up from a sword and she saw a little blood staining the edges of those cuts, but he looked to be completely healed already beneath his clothes.

"How?"

"How what?"

"How did you defeat somebody like Aokiji?"

"Well he isn't the first ice user I've fought, and he isn't the strongest either."

""Ehh?!""

"What? Did I say something weird?"

"N-not the strongest?! Y-y-you've fought somebody stronger?!" said Usopp.

"Yeah, but that was a while back though. Ancient history." That grabbed Robin's attention again, she just couldn't get the feeling that he was semi-serious when he says things like that.

"What do you want with us?" asked Zoro. He kind of wanted this guy gone already, he felt that he couldn't drop his guard yet around him.

"Cool your jets green bean. I just wanted to see if you were all okay. You guys look a little beat up, but these two over here haven't moved on their own since I got up here." said Naruto indicating towards Luffy and Chopper.

"Green bean?!"

"Hahaha! Green bean! I like Zoro's new nickname!"

"Shut up Luffy!"

"So, I can heal all of you if you'd like. It's up to you."

"You're a doctor?!" Chopper shouted, surprised this scary strong guy is a doctor too.

"Haha! Of course not! I don't have the brains to learn about all that mumbo jumbo! It's too complicated."

"But you just said you could heal us."

"And I can."

"Then how?"

"Like this." Golden chakra arms suddenly burst from Naruto's back as they went to those who needed to be healed. Zoro and Sanji reacted quickly to avoid the arms since they were still suspicious and Sanji went in to attack since he saw the arms going after the girls but they wouldn't be fast enough to evade, so he wanted to take him out before they could reach them. Sanji was surprised when another hand popped out as he was flying through the air with a kick and it grabbed hold of his leg and held him upside down so he couldn't attack again. "Keep your shirt on curly. I'm not gonna hurt anyone." Zoro as well was caught soon after as he tried to slice the yellow arm with his sword but it wouldn't cut through and it grabbed hold of his arm.

"Curly?!"

"Hahaha! Curly! I like Sanji's nickname too!"

"Shut up Luffy!"

"Ah! I can move again. Shishishishi!"

"Ah! Me too! And I feel completely reenergized! How did you do that?!" said Chopper.

"What can I say, it's just more of my awesome at work."

Everyone else was just starting to feel the same way as the arms retracted back into Naruto's body. All their wounds were completely healed and the fatigue they had went away. While Naruto's partial chakra cloak was active he could sense another presence aboard the ship that he didn't immediately see, but it felt like it was coming from the ship itself. He placed a hand on the mast of the ship and was going to use his wood release until he heard a voice speak to him in his head, and it wasn't any of the Biju. Usopp noticed right away when Naruto placed his hand on the mast, wondering what he was doing, but then he also heard the voice of Going Merry.

' _It's okay. This is as far as I can take them on their journey. I can no longer sail the seas ahead with them. I loved every memory I had with my friends. Thank you for taking care of them.'_

"… You're welcome." said Naruto. Usopp started to cry again figuring out that Naruto wanted to save this ship too but Merry had refused. "This is a good ship."

"Yes… It's the best ship." said Usopp as he continued to cry, knowing that Merry gave them everything it could.

Now that he could walk, Luffy then walked up to Naruto to speak to him. "Thank you for helping Robin. I really appreciate it."

"No problem."

"Now, I have one question for you."

"Okay."

"Are you trying to be King of the Pirates?"

"No."

"Are you after the One Piece?"

"That's two questions."

"So it is." Luffy then just continued to stare intensely at Naruto still waiting for an answer, which made everyone sweat drop. Naruto had no idea what this one piece was, but he could tell it was important to the kid so he decided to mess with him a little bit.

"Well, one piece is good and all, but I'd rather go after the two piece."

"Huh?" Luffy tilted his head in confusion, as did the others, but then his eyes shot wide open just thinking of the implications. "There's a two piece?! When did this happen?! How could I not know about this?!" Luffy began panicking while running around thinking there was a whole other treasure out there that may be better than one piece. Thinking he might have the wrong goal.

"Doesn't everyone know about this?"

"Aaaahhh! I'm the only one who doesn't know?!" Luffy's panicking just became worse.

"What the hell are you talking about? What two piece?" said Sanji.

"We're talking about women's swimsuits aren't we? I mean one piece swimsuits have their own charm and everything, but come on. Who doesn't like a two piece better? Am I right?"

"Ooohhh! Yes! You are absolutely right! Two piece bikinis are the best!" Sanji then started dancing around dreaming about cute girls in bikinis with hearts in his eyes.

Nami was a little pissed at the lame joke and gave a good punch to both Naruto and Sanji on the head. "You two are idiots!"

Somehow Sanji's face immediately swelled looking beat up as he apologized profusely and Naruto just laughed it off, not surprised at least one of the women would get mad. Everyone was glad he was just making a dumb joke so their captain could stop freaking out. Which he did after someone had to explain it to him that he was just messing with him. Luffy took it in stride and laughed about it too, not mad at all about the little prank. Kokoro and Robin also got a good laugh out of it and seeing Sanji's reaction.

"Well, you guys can take it from here. Just wanted to make sure everyone's okay. I should get going."

"Wait!" Nami had been thinking for a while about this guy after showing them the things he could do. He's super strong, strong enough to take out an Admiral so he could definitely keep them all safe. He could keep the Marines and World Government at bay since they basically declared war on them when they burned their flag which painted a big target on them. He could also heal everyone without any expensive medical equipment or supplies, which would cut costs. He could also beat up other pirates and easily take their money without trouble with how strong he is. Everything was pointing to Berry signs, meaning money.

"Yes, Nami. Did you need something else?"

"Join our crew!"

""What?!"" Many of the crew exclaimed, surprised she would want him on the crew. Sanji was mostly upset because he was jealous that Nami wanted another guy to join and he saw the way Robin was looking at him too. So he definitely didn't want this guy as a part of their crew.

"Come on Luffy! Don't you think he would be a great crew member?"

"No."

"What?! Why not?!"

"He's too strong. The captain's supposed to be the strongest!" Luffy said with a pout as he turned away refusing to look at her.

"But he doesn't want to be captain! Right?"

"Hahaha! Sorry there Nami, but I'm not looking to be a pirate."

"Do you think the government will just overlook what you did here?"

"Nope. I'm sure I'll be the hottest new criminal on the front page tomorrow."

"Then…"

Naruto's expression turned a bit more serious as he cut her off. "Sorry, but my goals just aren't the same as yours."

"What _are_ your goals?" asked Robin.

"To save lives and help people who need it. I was on my way to help a bunch of people in a bad situation when I spotted you guys here. I thought you could use a little help too, so I stuck around. Good thing I did if you're all so afraid of Aokiji."

"It's _your_ fault he came in the first place!" said Nami.

"Haha! You're probably right."

"Save lives? Ooooh! You're a hero! I love heroes! That means you'll share your meat with us right?!" said Luffy, excited a hero is going to share his meat with them, he was starving!

"Uh, if I had some meat then yeah, I'd share with you. But I don't have any meat."

"No meat! What kind of hero are you?!" Everyone had sweat drops thinking of Luffy's weird way to identify a hero.

"Here, how bout a nice banana tree?" Naruto suddenly made them a banana tree inside a wooden crate that was already producing said fruit becoming perfectly ripe. "Once you pick the bananas from the tree, new ones will start growing and be ready in a few hours. So you should never go hungry again. But you have to take care of it though and give it plenty of water and sun."

""Sooo coool!"" Once again, Luffy, Chopper, Usopp, Franky, Chimney and Gonbe were impressed with his unique ability and started to try them out seeing as they were hungry.

"This is good! I like bananas, but meat would have been better though. I guess you're an okay hero."

"Gee, thanks kid. Well, I gotta go, but I like you bunch, so here." Naruto took out a Hiraishin kunai and handed it to Luffy. "This is a special kunai of mine, that basically allows me to teleport to it. If you ever think you're in enough trouble that you need my help you can just channel some energy into it or throw it and I'll be there in a second."

"Nope, I don't want it. I'll protect my own crew."

"Luffy! Don't be so stubborn! It won't hurt us to have allies we can count on!" said Nami, but Luffy looked like he was determined to refuse.

"Alright, if that's what you want. I'll respect that."

"I'll take it." This whole time, Robin had been wanting to ask him many questions about himself but she was honestly just emotionally exhausted from this whole ordeal and her crew still needed to get away from here. From what Naruto was telling them he also had important things to do and couldn't afford to be bombarded with questions right now, so she would have to wait until she got a chance to speak with him privately. So she couldn't pass up on this chance to meet him again as she took the kunai from Naruto.

"But Robin!~" Luffy started whining and rolling around on the deck like a child thinking _he_ should be the one to protect his crew, but he wouldn't stop her if she wanted his help.

"Thank god! I knew you were the smartest one here Robin!" said Nami as she immediately hugged her again, glad to not be the only one to think they could use his help in the future.

"Alright, I'll see you guys around some time. Later!" Naruto then jumped off the boat and started running on the water as Chomei's wings formed on his back again and he jumped up to start flying to his original destination. Everyone was shocked once again by what Naruto could do as they looked on in surprise and awe as he disappeared in the distance.

"What the hell is with this guy?! He can heal people, grow fruit trees, run on the ocean, and fly too! Then he says he can teleport! How many things can one guy do?! This is bullshit!"

"Aww, are you jealous Sanji-kun?" said Nami.

"O-of course not Nami-swan!"

"You're right Sanji! We should check if this thing is even real." Luffy quickly swiped the kunai out of Robin's hand. "Here Zoro, catch!"

"You idiot! Don't throw that thing at me! Gaaah!" Everyone was surprised when Naruto suddenly appeared in front of Zoro as he was leaning on the rail of the ship and moved back on instinct to avoid the kunai and started falling overboard. He was saved when Naruto caught his ankle and put him back on the ship.

"Did you guys really need me to save Zoro from falling over the ship?"

"It was your fault I fell over!"

"Sorry Naruto-san, Luffy decided to test your technique." said Robin.

"Oh, okay, that's fine I guess." Naruto handed the kunai back to Robin and then turned to Luffy with an annoyed expression. "But quit messing with it!"

"Hahaha! Okay."

"I know I said this earlier, but I just want to thank you again for your help." said Robin.

"Don't mention it. What the World Government did to you is unforgivable. You didn't deserve everything that's happened to you. I really gotta get going this time. I have a lot of work cut out for me." The insect wings were still on Naruto's back so he shot off again to head for Mariejois to start his campaign of rescuing those slaves.

* * *

Naruto did indeed go to Mariejois like he said he would after a few hours of flying, but he didn't have much of a plan after that. He was able to sneak around one of the Celestial Dragon's elaborate mansions, and he didn't need to be in any sage mode to feel the negative emotions flooding the place; it actually made him feel sick. After a while he couldn't stand it anymore and just flooded the mansion with clones to grab every slave on the mansion grounds and just get them out of there. Naturally all the commotion got the attention of the guards and he fought them off himself while his clones grabbed the slaves, who were admittedly scared and confused. Naruto only had two Hiraishin markers out in this world and he didn't think the Straw Hats could handle something like this, so he only had one other option.

* * *

Boa Hancock was out at sea with her crew headed for the Grand Line, looking to raid any nearby pirates when about ten clones of Naruto started popping up all around her. Ever since Naruto gave her his kunai, she made sure to keep it on her or near her at all times. She currently had it strapped to her leg in a custom holster, closely reminiscent of the shinobi back in the Elemental Nations. Her crew was immediately on guard seeing all these men boarding their ship. Sandersonia and Marigold were about to prepare themselves as well until they recognized the face of the men and the people they brought with them wearing similar shackles and chains that _they_ once wore long ago. The Gorgon Sisters' eyes all became wide once they realized what was happening; Naruto was making true on his promise to put an end to the World Government's slavery.

"Weapons down! Do not attack those men!" yelled Hancock to her crew, which they immediately obeyed. "This is the man you were all told about. He is not to be harmed!"

"Hey Hancock! Looks like we're seeing each other sooner than we thought huh?"

"Y-yes, it seems that way. Is this what I think it is?"

"Yeah, the boss is raiding a Celestial Dragon. We need your help."

"H-how many?"

"There's over three hundred. They're waiting for one of us to confirm your help before anymore are sent here."

"My ship cannot hold that many."

"But can we use your island? Only temporarily."

"Okay. You have my permission."

"Thanks a bunch Hancock! Alright, the rest of you make the ship while I let them know!"

The clone Hancock was talking to dispelled and the other clones worked together to make a ship large enough to hold all the former slaves that were waiting to be saved. Hancock and her crew watched in amazement as nine clones created a large passenger ship within a few minutes, having never seen anything like it before. As soon as the ship was complete the clones that made it placed a Hiraishin marker down and dispelled. The Kuja Pirates saw even more clones appearing on the ship with more people that just looked like common prisoners to them, but the Boa sisters knew better.

Once all the clones Naruto made to save the slaves appeared on his ship, Hancock instructed her crew to lead them back to Amazon Lily. Since they were on the Calm Belt, Naruto had some of his clones make wooden chains attached to the ship so they could pull it through the still waters. A number of clones wanted to make cracks at their creator about their boss treating them like slaves, but considering the current circumstances they thought it would be in poor taste so they reluctantly kept their mouths shut. Naruto had a feeling what they were thinking too as some of them were giving him glares, but was glad they kept silent.

While they were traveling, Naruto was speaking to the former slaves to let them know what was going on and why they were here. It was a very emotional moment to say the least when they realized this wasn't some sick dream. Once they all had calmed down somewhat, he and some more clones got to work on freeing them from their shackles and healing them; telling them they would take away their marks as well so they wouldn't be hunted down to be returned to their former masters. Many were poorly fed as well so he provided some provisions he had for emergencies; mostly things like ration bars and food pills which weren't very appetizing but none of them complained.

Naruto was distracted from his healing when he felt something creeping up behind them. He finished quickly with his current patient and headed for the back of the ship. He was a bit surprised when a monstrous creature rose out of the ocean that was big enough to swallow both his and Hancock's ships whole. This creature looked to be a dark blue and yellow snake skinned seal with razor sharp teeth that had drool dropping from its mouth, ready for a meal.

Everyone aboard both ships started to yell and panic when they realized a Sea King was going to have them for lunch, but then they became confused when the creature had a fearful expression on its face and soon swam away as fast as it could. Many didn't know what happened but Hancock and her sisters felt the spike in Naruto's energy and knew he was the one to scare it away. Other veteran members of the Kuja Pirates recognized that presence as the Haki that was used when that man was with their empress and her sisters one night ago.

"That man is still as intimidating as ever." said Marigold.

"Yes. I still can't believe he pulled this off." said Sandersonia.

"H-hebihime-sama?" asked a random member of the crew.

"Yes?"

"Um, not to question your judgment but, why are we helping this man?" Many of the members of the crew wanted to know why their empress had allowed a man to leave their island without any form of punishment, which usually meant death. Ran had told the crew of the man that infiltrated their island and made sure they kept it among crew members only. They all thought he would be sacrificed to Bacura, but were really shocked to hear that he was let go. They didn't want to question their empress, but it was so out of character for her that they couldn't help but be curious.

"That man… has lifted our curse." Many gasps were heard from the crew, believing it to be impossible to lift the curse of the Gorgon Sisters, but they would never think their empress would lie about this. "He is an ally of the Kuja, and I expect him to be treated with respect. Have I made myself clear on this matter?"

""Yes Hebihime-sama!""

After a couple of hours, Hancock led Naruto's ship to the back end of Amazon Lily where it was mostly jungle. She wanted to help Naruto but as empress of the Kuja she could not allow men into her village, which many of the slaves were, only Naruto was an exception. Naruto didn't complain and quickly made some barracks in an open area for the people to stay in. He knew they weren't going to settle there so they were only temporary buildings.

* * *

"Thank you so much for this Hancock. I really appreciate your help. I know I'm putting you in a tough spot, but I didn't really have any other place to go."

"N-no. It is fine. Just as long as none of those men come near the village."

"Don't worry, I have a barrier put up that will keep everyone in the encampment and the wildlife out. Right now my clones are still working on finding their homes so I can take them back. They won't be here for too much longer."

"That is fine, take all the time you need… I never thought I'd see another day someone would spit in the face of the Celestial Dragons. I know what those people have gone through, even someone like me can sympathize with them. It's still hard to believe you did it."

"I'm not done yet. This is just a small number of slaves, I know there were even more than that. And those pricks will probably just buy more people to restock their lost supply. I have to be more organized with this. I kind of just jumped the gun without thinking too much. (sigh) But I'm not gonna stop."

Hancock stood there with Naruto on her balcony just admiring him even more for actually getting something done about the slaves. After seeing his recent actions from helping all these people and seeing their overwhelming joy as a result, she knows she can trust him completely now. To think a man from another world came here to help those who needed it most and to right the many wrongs of those in power. She couldn't stop the blush on her face or her heart from beating faster even if she tried.

* * *

Days later, Water 7

"I can't believe Luffy's dad is such a big name." said Zoro.

"Ah, I probably shouldn't have said all that… Wahahahaha!… Then, forget all that!" said Monkey D. Garp, after revealing Luffy's father was the infamous Revolutionary Army leader, Monkey D. Dragon.

""Ehhh?!"" Everyone's reaction was the same from the Straw Hat crew to the Marines standing outside and those helping rebuild the wall Garp had destroyed earlier. They all couldn't believe the Vice-Admiral would reveal such information and expect everyone to just forget what he said.

"Oh yeah, I heard from Aokiji in the hospital, that you guys had a run-in with the newest criminal that just popped up recently. 'The Ungodly Sage' Uzumaki Naruto." said Garp as he was still hammering away, and digging for gold.

"That blonde bastard! The first bounty he gets and it's nine-hundred million Berries! That's three times Luffy's current bounty!" said Sanji as he pulled out the bounty poster of Naruto, pointing at it accusingly. Luffy was crouched under the table with his back turned, unhappy his bounty was lower than someone else's that was involved in the Enies Lobby incident.

"You really _are_ jealous Sanji-kun." said Nami. Sanji was on all fours with an air of shame around him and mumbling to himself after Nami's comment.

"You're blonde too you idiot. And it's probably because he has a better picture than you." said Zoro. Sanji soon picked himself up and started butting heads with Zoro with the two men growling at each other.

The picture of Naruto's bounty was taken from above that showed Naruto in a defensive stance surrounded by beaten, bruised, and broken bodies of Marines on the deck of a warship. Naruto was also looking directly at the camera when the picture was taken and he had a wide grin which made it look like he was having fun. But what made everyone nervous about it, was that the government edited the picture to make it look like a massacre with blood spilling from the bodies and Naruto himself covered in blood. They were trying to paint him as a deranged killer that needed to be hated and hunted by the world.

' _That picture has to be doctored, the World Government wouldn't be above doing that. He told all those beasts not to kill anyone, so why would he go and kill all those Marines himself? He even let Aokiji live when he obviously had the upper hand.'_ thought Robin.

"Yeah, he destroyed one of the Gates of Justice, he annihilated the Buster Call with the help of some kind of unknown monsters, he defeated Aokiji without sustaining any serious injuries, which is a black mark for the World Government in itself. But not only that, several Marines heard a direct confession of the murder of CP9 Director Spandam. A few hours later he was then seen causing trouble in the Holy Land Mariejois and freed a bunch of slaves. That's why his bounty is so high."

""WHAT?!"" No one there could believe that one man could cause so much trouble within such a short amount of time, and to cause trouble in Mariejois of all places is suicide. The World Government _definitely_ won't pull any punches when they hunt for him.

' _So he killed Spandam._ _And the lives he was talking about saving were slaves in Mariejois? He definitely didn't hesitate to get to the heart of the matter. What an intriguing man._ _'_ thought Robin.

"Mm, from what I heard, it looks like he was concerned about causing too much collateral damage and got away with a few hundred slaves before any of the two other Admirals could get there. We still don't know how he did it or where he went, but for a rookie criminal, he is considered to becoming one of the most dangerous men in the world right now."

"Uh, Vice-Admiral. That was supposed to be classified information sir." said Garp's right hand man.

"Oh crap… don't tell anyone I told you that." Everyone just had sweat drops, already getting used to the Vice-Admiral's personality.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Hello. I know I kept everyone waiting once again.

But getting straight to it, I just want to let you know that after a conversation with MathiasNightlord01, he convinced me that my initial bounty for Naruto was too low so it has been changed. So you can go back to the end of last chapter and see what it is or just read on in this one as it will be mentioned again. Unfortunately I still didn't go as high as he suggested since a stubborn part of me didn't want to break one billion just yet, but I gave him what I thought would be a bit of an ironic number that is easily associated with Naruto. Sorry MathiasNightlord01, but I _did_ change it!

I didn't get as far as I thought I would in this chapter so I guess it's something to look forward to. And a large part of this chapter I wasn't even planning to really expand upon but I just couldn't stop writing, and I wasn't about to delete any of it, so there's that too.

Anyways, Happy Holidays and best of wishes to all of you. Hope you enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 3

During the first couple of days after the rescue, the former slaves were still a bit overwhelmed as they continued to try to wrap their heads around the fact that they were free. It was well known that once you become a slave you would never be free, the only way out was death, whether it was by their own hand or that of their owner. The incident with Fisher Tiger was the only break out of slaves in history before Naruto came. When a noble finally has gotten all the amusement out of a slave that they could want, you were either killed or sold to another noble if they thought they could profit from it. So a life beyond slavery just wasn't something a slave could hope for.

During this time, Naruto and his clones spoke to these people to try to determine the locations of their homelands. The majority of them had somewhere to go back to, but some of them didn't have a place to go. A number of them were former pirates or criminals that were mostly used for manual labor and had suffered much physical abuse. Others had lost their families and couldn't bear returning to their former homelands and a few of them were children that were born into slavery and ultimately lost their parents when they outlived their usefulness. Many of the slaves had grown close during their time in captivity and offered to bring those without a home to their own nations where they could start anew again. So the majority ultimately had a place they could go, but more of the resentful people wanted to help Naruto exact their revenge on the World Nobles as they knew he would continue to rescue more slaves.

Naruto understood their want for revenge, but just outright slaughtering the World Nobles wasn't exactly the kind of message he wanted to send. If he did that then he would only be playing into the hands of the World Government and the image they created from his wanted poster. He would be seen as a ruthless cutthroat by the world with only these freed people knowing the truth about their savior, and they would be unable to say anything for fear of being discovered as one of the escaped slaves and returned to their owners. He managed to convince the majority to just move forward and not stoop to their level but the more violent criminals and pirates could not let go of their hatred.

"You know I'm right Uzumaki! Those World Nobles deserve nothing less than our contempt! All of them! You saw firsthand how they treated us! Maybe me and some of the others deserved some form of punishment since we were criminals, but they even had children under their thumb! **Children**! I may have been scum in my previous years but my crew and I never stooped so low as to target children! They are the lowest pieces of rotten filth to exist in this world! Those of us here are willing to help you finally put an end to them. Even if you can just get us back to their mansion and give us an opening, I'll gladly _die_ trying to snuff them out!"

The few dozen or so men surrounding their advocate, spoke their own piece or were nodding their heads in agreement with each other that the World Nobles had to pay for what they have done. They were all standing in front of Naruto in the middle of the clearing out in front of the barracks with the other freed people around them looking on due to the commotion they were causing. Naruto allowed them all to say what they wanted as he understood their anger, and once they finished he finally spoke.

"I can't do that. I understand your fury and your want to retaliate. What they did to you was not only inhumane but it is also unforgivable. But the Celestial Dragons aren't the ones to entirely blame for this."

"What?!" The man that first spoke to him and everyone around, including the onlookers, were not only surprised by his statement but were a bit outraged he would try to defend them. The more vocal of the people around began arguing against his statement all at once, and soon a small uproar could be heard from many of the people there.

Naruto stayed calm with the angry voices surrounding him, as he didn't want to intimidate these people any more than they already have been. With a simple flare of his chakra he could have silenced them in moments, but knew they needed to vent a little, so he waited patiently for them to calm down. His silence actually worked in his favor as they soon noticed he wasn't arguing back and they realized with all of them yelling out at once, their words just became jumbled together and difficult to understand, but they knew he understood they all basically felt the same. So after a few minutes, the noise of the crowd went down as the same man from earlier spoke for all of them.

"How can you stand there and say the Celestial Dragons aren't the ones to blame for what they did to us?"

"I didn't say that, I said they aren't _entire_ _ly_ to blame." Before another outburst could come he raised his hand in a motion for them to stop so he could continue. "Listen, I don't know much about how this World Government works, but the Celestial Dragons have no real strength to call their own. They are basically civilians in terms of physical strength or power. Where I come from, the military leaders create regulations and are tasked with enforcing them. Allowing noncombatants to dictate laws in a militarized government just doesn't make sense to me. So I feel the World Government is the one to take the majority of the blame for allowing slavery to even exist. Their jobs should be to protect you instead of allowing nobles free reign to do whatever they want. _They_ are the ones who need to be forced to change, and _they_ are who my real enemy is right now."

Many of the people around listened to what he was saying and had to admit that a government _should_ exist to protect everyone under their jurisdiction. But the same man from before had some news to break to him. "Well that's where you're wrong Uzumaki. You _are_ right that at the very least the innocent should have been protected, but the World Government doesn't work that way. Have you heard of the Five Elders that are in charge of the World Government?"

"Yes, I have heard mention of them."

"Well they _are_ Celestial Dragons themselves. They are the five highest ranking Celestial Dragons, and _they_ decide how the Government is run. Even if they're weak by comparison to the actual fighters, the military ultimately answers to them. The only way to stop slavery like you want, is to stop the Celestial Dragons. There's no other way."

"… I see. So that's how it is. This government is worse off than I first thought." Naruto had to rethink his views. If what the man said was true then the Celestial Dragons really _are_ the cause for all of this misery. It would really be an injustice if they were to go unpunished.

"Do you see now? If you can just get us back there, we can kill them all or die trying!"

"(sigh) Look, I didn't rescue you just so you can go back there and get yourselves killed; because that's exactly what would happen if I did that."

"We can still fight!"

"Oh really?" Naruto made a hand sign and concentrated his chakra to create over a few dozen wooden swords that uprooted from the ground next to every man that wanted to exact their revenge on the Celestial Dragons. "Show me."

They were a bit hesitant, but seeing as they were basically practice swords they knew they wouldn't really hurt the man that saved them all, but he was asking for it anyway; so they wouldn't feel too bad about it. They soon grabbed the swords and charged at him to show him they could still fight. Of course Naruto wasn't going to go anywhere near full force but instead fought them at the strength of what he estimated to be an average Marine. Naruto had his own wooden sword to defend himself and retaliate, as nearly all Marines carried a sword with them.

They fought for over fifteen minutes with him defending and countering them, while taking them out with painful hits. Since he fought while not using much of his strength, they actually managed to get in one or two shots on him. But for the number of men attacking him, it was really nothing; and even if they were real swords, they would have only been minor injuries. Soon enough all the men were either on the floor groaning in pain or laying there silently and realizing just how hopeless they really are. Those realizations were even more painful than the physical pain they were feeling right now.

"If you all went back right now you would be crushed. No two ways about it. It will take months for any of you to get back to peek physical condition. You have all been malnourished and underfed so your muscles have diminished. Even if you were doing manual labor for years, without the proper nutrition your endurance has taken a painful hit as well. Right now all of you aren't even really hurt, you're just exhausted from what was essentially a spar that didn't even last twenty minutes. So my answer is still no. I won't take you back to Mariejois just to get killed."

"So you're just gonna do nothing about the nobles? Even if you rescue every slave out there, they'll just get more."

"I didn't say I would do nothing. I… don't know exactly what I'll do. I have to think about it more."

"And what are _we_ supposed to do?"

"The majority of you wanting to fight were criminals right?" All the men slowly getting up from their beating shamefully admitted that they were. "So all of you here now know what if feels like to be the victim. This is the same feeling your own victims felt when they were at _your_ mercy. I hope you take it to heart and learn something positive from your experience. You have all been given a second chance. Don't waste it." Naruto began walking away from the group as he had to meet with Hancock in her village to see about some supplies she had offered to help these people.

Many of the men there were taking his words to heart and rethinking their futures. The hate and anger would probably never go away, but what mattered now was that they were free. The other people around them who witnessed the entire spectacle had more respect for their savior as he wasn't just willing to allow them to throw their lives away for nothing. He was definitely someone they could admire.

* * *

Later that day, Naruto learned from several slaves that they were mermaids and fishmen. It was difficult to identify some of the mermaids as they were in their more human form walking on their own legs, while the younger ones used what looked like a float ring, but was a strong type of bubble that allowed them to move on land. The fishmen were easier to identify since they all looked more fish than man. He was told that their home wasn't on the Grand Line like the other people there, but it was actually under the Red Line deep in the ocean, so their home would be the most difficult to reach. Naruto told them he had a solution that should get them home easy but they probably wouldn't be too receptive to the idea.

A few of the fishmen argued that they couldn't trust him because he was a human and he would probably take them back to Mariejois or abandon them because of who they are. None of them saw what happened earlier as they separated themselves from the others as they still were distrustful of other humans. Naruto tried to explain to them that he wouldn't do that, but he could see that the others were skeptical due to their comrades words; so he told them to see him later if they wanted his help or not.

The fishmen and mermaids were really uncertain of what to do. It was difficult to trust humans since they were responsible for so much of the pain their people have endured, but they were also worried since they couldn't do anything on their own right now. They knew they could get a ship coated at Sabaody Archipelago but they had no money and that place was the center of the slave trade in the Paradise portion of the Grand Line so they wouldn't go anywhere near there after just getting freed.

The mermaids were not as rash as their male counterparts and thought about the way they were being treated even after he knew they were mermaids. Any other humans would likely leave them to their fate, but this man has treated them with respect and no differently from the others. He treated their injuries, sheltered them, and fed them nutritious foods which is the most kindness they have ever received from a human. When they thought about it more, they realized he didn't even react negatively or surprised when he first saw the fishmen and could easily tell they weren't human. They saw him and his numerous clones working hard to make sure everyone had a place they could return to, wherever that was. The mermaids were in agreement and decided to convince the fishmen to at least hear what his plan was to get them back home.

After some convincing and realizing they had little choice, they all went as a group to see Naruto. They saw his clones still helping around the encampment but were told the original was meeting with the empress and her sisters at the other side of camp. When they saw him, they noticed the Boa sisters were accompanied by other Kuja as they brought the promised supplies to help all the rescued slaves. Naruto was actually discussing with the empress and her sisters about the mermen, trying to get their advice on what else he could do to help them. Naruto and the Gorgon sisters saw the group coming towards them as they halted their conversation to hear what they had to say.

"Hey there. Did you all figure out what you want to do?"

One of the fishmen, who looked like a light yellow seahorse, spoke up being the spokesperson of the group. "We were convinced that we have little choice but to at least listen to what you have to offer. Fishman Island is too far and too dangerous for us to try and swim there on our own. And it's too risky to go to Sabaody and get a ship coated. So how do you plan to help us get back to our home?"

"Let me show you."

"Do you mind if we accompany you as well Naruto?"

"Not at all, this _is_ your island. I can't tell you what not to do."

"O-oh, of course. How silly of me!" Hancock had a blush on her face as she still couldn't help but get flustered by the blonde man. Her sisters were finally starting to get the picture of what was going on with Hancock after they confided in Elder Nyon, and she explained to them what was in all likelihood happening with the empress. The sisters were a little shocked by the revelation, but concluded that if anything _did_ happen between Hancock and Naruto, they at least trusted him to take care of her. It also wouldn't hurt to have such a strong ally as him to have even closer ties with the Kuja.

Naruto led them to the edge of the island where a cliff face was overlooking the ocean. He motioned for them to stay there while he jumped off. They were surprised he would jump from so far up, thinking he would kill himself but then they saw him land on the water. When the former slaves were first rescued, they were some of the few who needed to be treated quickly and never saw the clones that literally dragged the ship to Amazon Lily. So seeing him land and walk on water was a big surprise to them. What came next would shock them all even more.

They couldn't immediately tell since his back was turned to them but they soon felt a large amount of energy being released from the man and after a short while a creature started to emerge from beneath him. They first saw a spiky gray shell as it began to rise out of the ocean. They initially didn't believe it to be too big but it was literally growing right in front of them until it became truly massive, and they were honestly terrified. They could only identify it as a sea king and it was probably the biggest and most fearsome sea king they had ever seen. What came before them was an enormous and scary looking turtle with one eye and three shrimp-like tails. They saw Naruto face them while standing on the front of its shell above its face as the creature moved towards them closer to the cliff, and it easily towered over them.

They were all basically petrified and they could hear the others in the background from the encampment screaming while the clones quickly tried to calm everyone down. The Boa sisters were a little uneasy and scared as well, but they remember from seeing Naruto's memories that he fought alongside giant creatures, so they believed this to be one of his allies.

"I knew this wasn't going to be a good idea."

"What? It's not like you guys are gonna be a big secret anymore. The World Government already knows about all of you. And besides, you'll get to explore the deepest parts of the ocean this way. Doesn't that make you happy?"

"Well, I suppose but…" Naruto and Isobu both looked down to see that most of the fishmen had fainted and the others were frozen in place.

Naruto had a sweat drop on his forehead and gave a nervous laugh while scratching the back of his head. "Haha, this might take some convincing."

"You think?"

"Don't go anywhere Isobu! I'll talk to them."

It took some time to just get everyone awake and even more time to explain that Isobu wasn't a threat to them, as they saw that the giant turtle wasn't making any aggressive moves towards them. The three sisters were surprised the creature could speak when they were talking earlier but were definitely glad it was a friend of Naruto's, so their fears were soon alleviated. As the other fishmen were starting to calm down a little more, one got his nerves under control enough that he could speak, thinking he understood what Naruto planned for them.

"So then, I'm guessing that you want us to ride on this turtle to get us to Fishman Island."

"Well not exactly _on_ him, but inside him!" Everyone just stared at him, looking like he was crazy. But Naruto felt he had to defend himself. "Hey, it's not so bad! I've been in there before! I mean, the first time he ate me because we were trying to get him away from the wrong kind of people, and he attacked me with hundreds of tiny versions of himself, but he didn't know we were trying to help him! He was just trying to defend himself! So I don't blame him. But we're cool now! He's a good buddy of mine!" They still looked wholly unconvinced so he felt a demonstration was in order. "Fine then. Isobu, open up!"

The massive creature opened its giant maw which scared them even more but then they saw Naruto actually jump inside on his own. They were all rightfully shocked and Hancock yelled out for him in panic thinking he was eaten when the turtle closed its mouth. She was about to attack the creature to get it to release him when it suddenly spoke to her as he locked his massive eye with hers.

"There is no need for that. Naruto is perfectly unharmed. As you can see, his clones are still working with the others back at camp. If the original dies, then his clones would go with him."

They all turned around and indeed saw the clones still helping around the camp and still trying to get some of the others to calm down from Isobu's presence. Isobu then opened its mouth and they all saw Naruto had jumped to stand on one of the jagged spikes that make his lower jaw, completely unscathed.

"See! Nothing to worry about! Isobu is one of the nicest turtles I know! I promise that there's nothing to be afraid of. There really isn't much that can penetrate his shell, so he'll keep us all safe."

One of the mermaids got brave enough to speak up. "D-does that mean you're coming with us?"

"Absolutely. I wasn't going to let you go down there on your own. Besides, I knew you would all be more comfortable if I went with you, and this will give me a chance to see your island. I'm curious to know where you all live. And since I'm still going to be rescuing slaves I'm sure there are more of your people that will need to be returned to your home, and this way I can get back there easier."

"Y-you really intend to continue rescuing slaves."

"Of course! I don't intend to stop until they're all freed! I won't leave anyone behind!"

The mermaid that was speaking to him was tearing up until she broke down in sobs sinking to her knees, as she cried. The others around her were trying to console her and Naruto was worried so he jumped down from Isobu to land in front of them to see what's wrong.

"Hey, what's wrong? Are you alright?"

The mermaid tried to wipe her tears but they wouldn't stop, but she was still able to speak to him. "I'm sorry, it's just that my two sisters were also captured at the same time and we were all sold to different nobles. I just never thought I'd see them again! Please, if you can save them, bring back my sisters!"

Naruto understood as she kept crying, both in happiness that she may see her sisters once again as well as sadness that they had to endure this suffering at all. The Boa sisters also felt for the mermaid, but knew it must have been even harder for her. They would never consider themselves lucky to have been captured at all, but it was a small blessing that they were at least together during their time as slaves.

"Listen, I'm afraid it will be a little longer before I can save anymore slaves from the Celestial Dragons. Don't get me wrong on this, it _was_ my intention to rescue all of you, but that time was more of the spur of the moment type of plan. I imagine that place will be even tighter on security since I caused such a mess up there. So right now I need to scout out everything and make an actual plan this time instead of diving in head first. Because if I do that then the other slaves will more than likely be in more danger than all of you were when I first rescued you. The element of surprise is gone now, so I have to be more careful. But I will promise you that I will save your sisters, and everyone; human, fishmen, and whatever other beings that are out there. All of your lives hold equal value to me. I can understand why you distrust humans, but I ask that you please trust in _me._ " Naruto turned to look at Isobu and the others did the same to look back at the scary creature he was staring at. "I know he looks intimidating, but I trust Isobu with my life, and I trust him with yours as well. If you let us help you, I promise you'll all be back home safely with your family and friends in no time."

All the fishmen and mermaids took some time to think over his words. A part of them really felt they shouldn't trust him because he was human, but they couldn't deny that his words sounded completely sincere, especially after knowing all he's done for them already. They all desperately wanted to get back home to their people and their families and this was really their only option. They didn't know of any other people that would sympathize with fishmen and offer to help them and they didn't know where they could safely contact their own people to reach out for help. They all discussed it amongst themselves for a few minutes and were in agreement as their spokesperson turned to talk to him.

"Okay, we will trust you and your friend back there. But know that we still have our doubts. It wouldn't be the first time a human has made promises to fishmen that they had no intention of keeping."

"You have nothing to worry about. If there's one thing you learn about me, it's that promises are something I hold very important, and I promise to get you all back to your homes."

* * *

Naruto and Isobu took the fishmen and mermaids back to Fishman Island that same day after they made some preparations and made sure they had enough supplies to last the trip there. They were all understandably hesitant to willingly get eaten by a giant turtle, but after Naruto was the first to enter the giant maw, the others carefully followed. It was an unexpected experience for all the merfolk. Instead of pulsating masses of soft tissue and dripping fluids they expected from entering the stomach of a giant creature, they realized as they made camp in a wide enough clearing, that they were surrounded by what was like solid stone walls and pathways. It definitely made their fears lessen knowing they wouldn't have to worry about stomach acids and foul smells.

Isobu wasn't in any sort of rush, so he swam at a steady, but still a quick pace for a creature of his size, while observing as much of the ocean's environment as he could. Just like with their mind link, Isobu was able to generate what was like a viewing window from a wall of mist so they could all see what he could see. While still inside the Calm Belt, they could see the hundreds of Sea Kings that inhabited the lower depths. The merfolk were definitely grateful they were safe inside this turtle. Most Sea Kings gave Isobu a clear path uninterrupted, but a group of the more aggressive ones felt he was intruding on their territory. They were going to move in to attack him, but the menacing aura Isobu generated to drive them away was more than effective to make them realize they were outclassed.

The trip was longer than expected since they were traveling from Amazon Lilly and their destination being very deep in the ocean. So after a few hours they figured it would be around nighttime on the surface, as it was hard to tell underwater, and they all turned in to get some sleep using some futons that Hancock provided them, while Isobu kept moving. As usual, a simple trip to the underwater island was anything but uneventful with Naruto's luck as several hours later their sleep was interrupted when Isobu's voice echoed throughout their little camping spot.

"Naruto, we have been followed by a group of Sea Kings for a little while now. But they look to be led by a small group of fishmen. So maybe our passengers know who they are, but their malicious intent indicates they aren't friendly."

Everyone was slowly getting up and just registering what the giant turtle had said when they looked towards the mist to see what he was talking about. They all saw several Sea Beasts getting close to Isobu's size, but not quite, as they continued to swim a distance away along either side of him. Each one resembled a specific land animal, being a lion, bear, elephant, gorilla, giraffe, rhino, leopard, and a squirrel. As they looked closer, they saw a single fishman riding atop each one. Several of the fishmen and mermaids riding in Isobu realized just who was starting to surround them right now, as they began to get scared.

"I-it's the New Fishman Pirates!" Many of them started to panic fearing the worst, but Naruto spoke to try and relieve their fears.

"Everyone stay calm! They have no idea we're even in here and they aren't strong enough to break through Isobu's shell. So you're all safe. Now, can someone tell me what exactly we're dealing with here?" They began to calm down a little after his words and their spokesperson from earlier told Naruto about them.

"The New Fishman Pirates are some of the worst criminals to come out of Fishman Island. They are a small anarchist group that follow the beliefs of Arlong, another fishman criminal that has been captured by the Marines. They believe fishmen are the superior race and wish to eradicate or enslave the human race with _them_ as their masters. They have also been known to kill any fishman that sympathizes with humans. Their hatred for humans runs far deeper than any other fishman not associated with them. These eight fishmen are the original gang members that started this group, but it looks like they've gotten the aid of these Sea Beasts."

"They're right though. Humans _should_ be beneath our feet." The Fishman who just spoke out was suddenly knocked to the ground by a punch from their seahorse spokesman as he glared at him.

"Do not speak of such things so brazenly!"

"Did you forget what the humans have done to us! What we have suffered through!"

"Did _you_ forget that we weren't the only one's to have suffered?! Human's were there right along with us! And did you forget just _who_ it was that rescued us?! It was a human! The man standing right here next to us as he tries to deliver us safely to our homes!" The Fishman looked to Naruto who just stood there watching as things unfolded. He couldn't stare at him for too long as he bowed his head in shame for thinking the same way as criminals.

"I… I am sorry. I just…"

"I know this isn't easy for any of you, but thinking the same way as these pirates makes them no different from the Celestial Dragons that enslaved you. You shouldn't be so willing to trade one evil for another." said Naruto.

"Naruto, they're beginning to surround me."

"Let's just see what they do. I'm guessing Fishmen can communicate with other sea life?" Naruto asked to everyone around him and they all gave a positive affirmation to his question. "Okay, so they'll probably try to communicate with you so let's see what they want."

Isobu was approached from the front by the lion, gorilla and bear as the others surrounded him. Those with Naruto pointed out Hody Jones being their captain as he swam forward to speak to Isobu.

"Well you're a big and scary one aren't you? We haven't seen you around here before. Where are you headed in such a hurry?"

"Fishman Island." The pirates in front of him were very surprised that Isobu could speak directly to them since they thought he was just a regular Sea King. Hody's surprise turned to a grin as he realized this was a very special Sea King that he could use in his growing forces.

"Now why would you be headed there?"

"I have an important delivery to make."

"Oh really? Why don't you hand this delivery over to us and we'll make sure it gets there safely. We're good friends of the king. You can even come with us as we show you the way." Hody and the others had wicked grins of their faces, thinking they could easily overwhelm this creature and manipulate it to do what they want.

"No." They weren't too surprised by his answer knowing it was far more intelligent than any other Sea King they have met. But Hody was still a little angry that it would defy him so quickly and seemingly with no concern at all for the situation it was in.

"We just want to get to know you so you can become a friend of ours, an ally. There's nothing to be afraid of here."

"You're right, I do not fear you. But I am not going to be your ally."

"Haha! You don't seem to understand…"

"You're wrong, I understand that you are trying to intimidate me into joining your little group here, but it won't work. I will only ever follow one man and you are not him." Now the pirates were surprised that this turtle caught on to their scheme so quickly and yet it still would defy them. They were all visibly angry including the Sea Beasts as they began to growl at Isobu to try and further intimidate him. Hody however, was stuck on the words he just spoke as he became even angrier than the others.

"Man? This man you follow wouldn't be a human would it?"

"Yes." Now Hody was visibly shaking. The thought of a human commanding this beast enraged him. Sea Kings could only be controlled by the strongest of the sea, namely himself. Humans had no business controlling _anything_ beneath the sea. He tried to reign himself in to keep himself from lashing out at the creature before him.

"Now why would you follow such a weak and pathetic human at all? …It doesn't matter. You're free to do what you want now, I release from your hold to this human. You no longer have to follow his words. If you come with us, we'll keep you from the clutches of such a weak man. You are much better off following _us_ than a filthy human. You can be right where you belong, among your peers."

"There is nothing to release me from. Nothing you say will ever get me to abandon him."

"Why?! You don't belong with a damned, weak human!"

"The man I follow does not control me like you are trying to do to me right now. I know I would be nothing more than a tool for you to use should I follow you. I follow _him_ because he has become a part of my family as I have become a part of his, and Naruto is anything but weak."

"Really? Why don't you bring this Naruto to us and we'll show you just how _weak_ he really is? And then we'll personally show you why it's best to become our ally."

"You wouldn't last five minutes with him."

"Then let him prove it! Bring him to us and we'll show you who the superior race is! We'll even wait for you to bring him."

"There's no need to wait. He's right here." The New Fishman Pirates didn't quite know what the turtle was talking about until it looked like it spit something out of its mouth, and sure enough there was a human man right there in front of them. They started to laugh as they all thought he was just another weak human, especially from his stature as most of them would tower over him, he didn't look like anything special at all. What they thought was truly amusing was that he was dumb enough to show himself while he was in their domain.

"Hahaha! So this is the human you follow? What sort of idiot would just show up to fight fishmen under the ocean? I don't even have to do anything, he'll just drown on his own! Hahaha!" What they couldn't identify was that Naruto had a new generation rebreather that had been developed in the Elemental Nations some time ago before he left. It was a hardened face mask that covered his nose and mouth, closely reminiscent to Kakashi's mask, that allowed him to breathe under water by using his chakra to generate oxygen. He also later developed it further on his own time by adding seals that would even allow him to project sound waves through water so they could hear him speak clearly.

Those still inside Isobu were shocked that he would confront these pirates directly in the ocean. They believed he was a Devil Fruit user from seeing the many unnatural things he could do, so they tried to stop him from going out there when he was telling Isobu he would confront them. But he just told them he would be fine and to just watch as things unfold. They were skeptical, but none of them were willing to risk going out there and being captured by one group of monsters so soon after they were freed from another. Even though it shamed them, the fishmen there knew they didn't have the strength to fight Hody and his crew right now. So they had to leave it up to their savior to protect them once more.

"Listen guys, we're in a bit of a hurry, so I'll give you one chance to surrender and I'll turn you over to the authorities and none of you have to get hurt."

They at first wondered how this man could talk let alone look like he was breathing just fine underwater with a simple looking mask, but they were all more angered at this human's lack of respect and fear of being outnumbered as they began spouting curses at him. "What do you think you can do against us here! You're in _our_ world now! We have been chosen by heaven to rain down judgment against humanity! None will be spared!"

"Yyyyeah. I've been to heaven before, and I really doubt they'd choose you for anything." Naruto wasn't telling them that the heaven he went to was on a different world, so he really had no idea if there even was a heaven here or how the afterlife worked in this world, but they didn't need to know that. "The way I see it, you're really no different from some of the humans who think too highly of themselves and do whatever they want just like you. You all amount to the same in the end. Criminals that need to be put down."

"The same? You think we're the SAME?! Humans are **nothing** compared to us! DIE!"

Everyone inside Isobu became scared and worried when they saw the pirates shoot out like torpedoes and immediately attacking Naruto all at once. They didn't think there was any way a human could stand up to these pirates in their natural habitat. And if Naruto was defeated here and they were found, they would most likely be killed by these fishmen for relying on a human to protect them. They absolutely hated any fishmen that associates with humans.

Their doubts were soon quelled as they were shocked to see Naruto easily evading their attacks and even countering them as if there was no resistance from the water. Naruto had knocked all but one back as he held the smallest of the fishmen by the back of his jacket and delivered a strong blow to his midsection causing spittle to fly out as his eyes rolled back in his head. He then threw him towards a spike on Isobu's shell and called out to him.

"Isobu! Hold on to them for me! I'll get the rest soon!"

"Understood." As the small red fishman hit a spike on Isobu's shell, coral began to immediately cover him, holding him in place against the spike. Seeing this Sea King display its unique ability, Hody wanted this beast under his thumb even more, but he would have to wait until they killed this human first.

"What?! He got Daruma!"

"Grrr! Kill him! I want nothing of him left behind!" yelled Hody.

They came at him again with their own various weapons trying to take down this human. Naruto was just too fast for them as he still evaded their attacks and was about to counter one fishman with a kick when he suddenly puffed up and his own spikes jutted out from him to form a defense. The fishman and his allies smirked thinking he had no way of hitting him without hurting himself and were going to take advantage of the opening. But to their shock, Naruto didn't stop his kick and still let it land as the fishman was launched back to hit another of Isobu's spikes as he was knocked out and more coral began to cover his body to hold him in place.

While the fishmen were still in a stupor, Naruto took this chance to go on the offensive while they were distracted. He quickly covered the distance between him and the group and landed more heavy blows against three of them that weren't quick enough to react to his attack. And just like that three more were unconscious and captured by Isobu. So now it was Naruto against the last three who were the largest of the New Fishmen Pirates.

Hody was beyond furious right now seeing this human taking them out with relative ease. He regrets not bringing some of the Energy Steroids they had been producing but he never thought there would be any need for them right now. They weren't ready to take on the Neptune Army yet as he was still trying to expand his forces. But he still wasn't ready to believe a human could match them under the ocean, and was ready to take this seriously now. But he had to get that Sea King out of the way first as he directed his anger to the Sea Beasts still surrounding it.

"What the hell are you dumb animals just floating there for! Show that Sea King its place! Now!" Still being scared of Hody and his strength, the Sea Beasts did as they were commanded and moved to engage Isobu.

"Take it easy on them Isobu. They don't deserve to die for this guy."

"I know, I wouldn't have aimed to kill them either way." Naruto just nodded his head to him in thanks as Isobu moved away from Naruto's fight to engage in his own.

As soon as Isobu moved away, Naruto was encased inside a large shroud of ink that blocked his vision and had to dodge and deflect a few thrown spears. The fishman with eight arms swam right into the inky water and immediately began a rapid fire attack using all eight of his fists, intent on pummeling the human inside his ink cloud. Every strike was quite strong, strong enough to break stone and far stronger than that of a normal human, but these fishmen were beginning to realize this was no normal human. The fishman could feel many of his strikes being blocked despite the lack of vision before them. After a few moments, his attack slowed to a stop while the ink still clouded his vision and he heard this man speak.

"Very nice tactic, taking away my vision. But since your attacks were so random, I'm guessing it takes away from your own vision as well, am I right?"

Before he could respond, he never noticed the man right beneath him as he came up like a rocket with a jaw breaking uppercut as his brain was rattled and even lost a few teeth. Naruto continued using the ink as cover as he continued to land blow after blow against his torso while he was still whirling from the first strike to his head. Soon after, the fishman was knocked out of the ink cloud and into the open where his final two comrades saw his unconscious and bleeding form begin to just float there unmoving. The ink was finally fading away as they saw Naruto's form still looking completely unharmed.

"You should rethink your tactics if your own abilities can be used against you."

Hody and his last standing comrade were seeing red by this point, and they both swam at high speeds intent on ripping this human to shreds. Hody was barring his teeth in order to bite chunks out of him while the other, that Naruto believed to be a hammerhead shark due to the position of his eyes being on either end of his forehead, had a giant hammer aiming to crush him. Naruto immediately felt their killing intent and turned around seeing the last two of the New Fishmen Pirates coming at him. Hody was the faster of the two so he reached Naruto first but was quickly evaded while Naruto moved into the path of the other fishman. The two pirates believed he made a mistake they could capitalize on as the fishman's hammer was already in full swing and about to hit its mark.

Both of their eyes widened in shock when they saw this human punch right through the giant hammer, reducing it to crumbling steel sinking into the ocean. Their surprise distracted them enough that Naruto quickly swiped the wooden stick that was the hammer's handle and gave a mighty swing of his own, while reinforcing the wood with his chakra, and slammed it across the hammerhead fishman's forehead and eyes. He too was soon unconscious and floating in the middle of the ocean.

All of his comrades were defeated, the seven strongest fishmen under him were defeated by a single human. Hody couldn't understand this, any fishman was known to be ten times stronger than any normal human and even twice as strong than that under water. None of them even landed a damaging blow to this man. He and the New Fishmen Pirates were supposed to be the chosen, the superior race destined to wipe out humanity for their arrogance. But this one man was standing in his way.

Hody was taken out of his stupor when he saw two shrimp-like tails grab hold of his two recently defeated comrades and brought to the spikes on the shell of that giant Sea King he was currently fighting over. He saw the turtle floating behind the human that defeated his crew and secure his last two allies to his shell with the same coral he produced to capture the others. He looked around him and saw that all the Sea Beasts he had under his control were also unconscious and sporting their own injuries indicating their defeat at the hands of this turtle. It was a total loss, neither Sea King or human in front of him looked injured or fatigued. He could not accept this.

Blinded by rage, Hody's pupils shrank as he began generating power. He launched himself towards Naruto hoping to beat him with his Fishman Karate as he began throwing punches and kicks trying to overpower him, but Naruto proved to be faster as he blocked each strike. This went on for a little while as Naruto landed several of his own blows but Hody took his strong hits much better than the rest of his crew as he was sporting several bruises but still able to continue. Hody was knocked back a short distance away from Naruto as he was bleeding from his mouth and breathing heavily.

"I'll admit you're stronger and tougher than the others, but you should just surrender. You won't be able to beat me like this."

"I will not be beaten by some pathetic human! I HAVE BEEN CHOSEN!" He gave a great yell and began to manipulate the water around him by launching water bullets towards Naruto. Due to being surrounded by water, Naruto just used water natured chakra and held his hands out to harden the water in front of him to make a defensive water wall. Hody widened his eyes in surprise again seeing a human able to manipulate water without a Devil Fruit, but he didn't stop his attack as this just angered him further and tried harder to break through his wall.

Hody wasn't the only one surprised by this, as the fishmen and mermaids inside Isobu looked on as well. They never thought a human could manipulate water so naturally like the practitioners of Fishman Karate could, even though they had seen him manipulating wood before. They realized there were many things they didn't know about the man who freed them, but they were at least grateful that he was continuing to protect them. They were all paying rapt attention as this single human was taking down their most notorious and dangerous criminal group from Fishman Island.

Hody was still firing his attack but unable to break through for a while longer until he finally stopped and yelled out in frustration. "Why won't you just die?!"

"Because I'm fighting to protect something. As long as I'm fighting to protect, you can never hope to beat me. Now I'll show you a _real_ water technique." Naruto went through some hand signs as three water dragons formed behind him, each almost as big as one of Isobu's tails. Hody's eyes widened when he saw the three dragons appear in front of him with menacing, glowing, yellow eyes all glaring at him. They all gave out a loud roar as they quickly converged on their target.

Hody could do nothing but yell in anger and frustration as he tried to brace himself from the incoming attack. The three dragons crashed into him from different angles with explosive force as they broke apart against his body, creating a cloud of millions of bubbles surrounding Hody and keeping him from view for several moments. When the bubbles cleared, Hody's unconscious body could be seen bleeding from several places including his eyes, mouth and gills but he was still alive as his chest was still moving.

Isobu once again grabbed Hody with one of his tails and secured him with more coral to the front most spike on his shell as the rest of his crew surrounded him on either side in similar battered, unconscious states. Naruto disappeared from view in a flash and reappeared inside Isobu behind the group of freed fishmen and mermaids who were closely huddled together in front of the wall of mist watching the fight in awe of this human. He surprised them all when they suddenly heard his voice from behind them.

"Now that that's over, let's get you all back home huh."

They all jumped from hearing his voice and quickly turned around to see him dripping wet as he was taking off his mask, giving them all a bright smile. They just stood in a bit of a stupor with wide eyes, seeing him in a whole new light. Without warning, the mermaid that had asked him to save her sisters lunged at him wrapping her arms around him and hugging him in thanks for keeping them all safe as she laughed happily. After seeing some more of his abilities, she was even more assured that she would see her sisters again if this man truly intended to keep freeing slaves. Naruto was surprised by this but accepted the hug as the others crowded around him giving their own thanks and praise for defeating these criminals.

Naruto just laughed in a bit of embarrassment as he scratched the back of his head from all the praise and gave Isobu a mental message to continue on to Fishman Island. They were all curious about his crazy strength and abilities as the mermaids bombarded him with questions as the fishmen also listened curiously. He gave them a basic version of how his body was built and how he trained and soon they were all conversing amicably with each other as he asked his own questions about their people and home. It was as if their previous suspicions of Naruto had simply vanished and they just wanted to know more about the man who saved them. Their friends and family would be hard pressed to believe them, but they would do their best to spread Naruto's name throughout Fishman Island as a human who would fight for all fishmen.

Before they knew it, a few hours had passed and the dark ocean became bright, as sunlight somehow penetrated its depths and Isobu let them know their home was coming in view. Naruto and the others looked at the image the mist was giving them as they saw an enormous bubble containing an entire island within it, along with a smaller bubble sitting atop the island that they informed Naruto was Ryugu Palace, the home of King Neptune, Princes Fukaboshi, Ryuboshi, Manboshi and Princess Shirahoshi.

All the fishmen and mermaids were admittedly excited to see their home once again as free people. Several couldn't help the tears that came as they could finally see their loved ones again and try to put their horrible experiences as slaves behind them. They again began thanking Naruto for keeping his word but he reassured them that it was the least he could do since they were free.

Naruto told Isobu to go directly in front of Ryugu Palace despite their warnings that Isobu would most likely be seen as hostile, but Naruto wanted to go straight to the King as soon as possible so he went back out in the ocean to stand on Isobu's shell so he could try to get their attention. So Isobu swam up to the bubble containing Ryugu Palace, and he and Naruto were sure enough causing a panic from them seeing a Sea King coming directly to the palace that easily towered over it. They saw hundreds of soldiers coming out to defend the palace and soon the fishmen and mermaids saw their king and his sons coming out to see what was going on.

* * *

"My King! You and the Princes should stay within the palace walls where it is safe!" Yelled a fishman wearing a purple robe and monocle known in the kingdom as the Minister of the Left.

"I'm afraid if that creature should turn hostile, no place in the kingdom will be safe." said King Neptune.

The King, his sons and his army all looked upon the giant Sea King with three tails that came directly to the palace, but they did not know its reason for doing so. The bubble surrounding Ryugu Palace should be impenetrable but even _they_ had doubts it could stand up to something this size.

"Father, do you think Shirahoshi can…" said Prince Manboshi.

"No!… No, we will not involve Shirahoshi in this."

"Yes father, forgive me."

"How is that possible?!" Everyone was distracted by an outburst from one of the soldiers that was looking through a periscope to get a closer look at the Sea King when he made a startling discovery.

"What is it?! What do you see?!" exclaimed the Minister of the Right who was a seahorse merman.

"I-it's a human standing on the creature's shell!"

""What?!"" Everyone didn't believe there could be a human out in the ocean this deep that was just standing on a Sea King.

"I-impossible!"

"What do you see now?"

"I-it's… the New Fishmen Pirates!" everyone yelled out in panic believing they really were being under attack.

"What?! They would _never_ work with a human?!" yelled Prince Fukaboshi.

"N-no, they have been captured by him!"

""What?!"" Everyone was now confused since he wasn't really making things clear for them with only giving them small pieces of information at a time.

"Just tell us everything you see already you nitwit!" said the Minister of the Right.

"R-right. All the main officers of the New Fishman Pirates are beaten and unconscious, and are bound to the Sea Kings spikes by what looks like coral."

"Coral?"

"Yes, coral is covering the majority of their bodies holding them in place. Wait, the human is doing something. He's, holding a knife and, it looks like he is preparing to throw it."

"What would that accomplish? There's no way a human could throw a knife from that distance and expect it to hit anything." said Prince Fukaboshi.

"He threw it!… Ah, I lost sight of it."

"You idiot!" said the Minister of the Right.

After several moments they all saw a knife penetrate the bubbles surrounding the palace and land in the front courtyard in front of the army. They all stared at it not really knowing what to do when a figure suddenly appeared before them. They immediately identified him as a human and the fishman who saw him earlier with his periscope exclaimed as much when he recognized him.

"It's him, that's the human I saw!"

Everyone immediately held their weapons up, aimed towards the intruder as a group of royal guards known as the Ammo Knights moved to the front of their forces to detain him.

"Don't move! You have invaded the royal palace and will be put under arrest immediately!"

"Whoa there! I know it was kinda dumb to just show up here but I didn't come to cause trouble, I just need to speak with your king." Naruto said as he held his hands up in a placating manner.

"Silence! The King has no…"

"That's enough! In case you have forgotten there is a dangerous Sea King just waiting outside our barriers, and we don't know if he has any control over it." said King Neptune as he and his sons moved forward to stand before Naruto despite his advisers telling them to stay back. The King and his sons really towered over Naruto, especially the king as even he towered over his sons, so Naruto was in a bit of awe by it. But the royal family approached cautiously with a hand on their weapon as they wouldn't underestimate someone just because of their smaller stature.

"Well I don't control Isobu, but he _is_ loyal to me." That made everyone tense, just thinking of what that beast might do if they attack this human. "Don't worry, he's not going to attack anyone here. I didn't come to start a fight."

"You could have fooled us with breaking into the royal palace." said Prince Fukaboshi.

"Yeah, they told me it was a bad idea but this way was much faster."

"What is it that you have come here for then?" said the king.

"I have a special delivery for you!"

"So you _were_ the one to defeat the New Fishman Pirates, and have come for their bounty."

"Oh, I forgot about those guys. But nope, they're just a bonus. _This_ is my real delivery." In a flash of light, three clones of Naruto appeared behind him with the freed fishmen and mermaids holding onto one of the clones as they used the Hiraishin to teleport them to the palace courtyard. Everyone was in a bit of confusion as they had no idea why he was delivering some of their people to the palace until a gasp was heard from one of the ministers as he immediately recognized someone.

"I-Inanaku?" said the Minister of the Right in a shaken voice as he could not believe what he was seeing.

"Father, I have come home." They could not hide their emotions as father and son came together in a tight embrace as cries of joy, pain, and sorrow flooded them. The king, his sons and the Minister of the Left were shocked as they recognized who Inanaku was after his father said his name as he had been a close friend to the princes until his sudden disappearance. They had no idea what happened to him and had searched tirelessly for years until it became seemingly hopeless to continue.

"I think we should talk in private, King Neptune." said Naruto. The king looked towards the human that brought home his minister's once lost son and needed to know the stories of the other citizens that he brought with him. He had an idea as he thought he recognized a few of them to have also been missing, but he couldn't possibly keep track of every citizen within his kingdom, so he needed to know what this was all about. He then noticed another flash of light as the now tied up New Fishman Pirates were brought by another clone to the palace courtyard.

"Yes. There seems to be much to discuss, but how can I trust you if you will so brazenly invade my palace?"

"I had good reasons for doing so. Your people here have made me aware of the poor relationships fishmen have had with humans, so I doubt any of your knights would have granted me an audience with you if I just asked. And I was also not comfortable with telling your men the circumstances surrounded these people of yours as it is a very delicate subject that I believed only you and those you trust the most to be informed of first. This was just the quickest way to get your full attention. But I am sorry for the commotion I caused, but I still believed it was the only way."

"I see. Well you definitely have my attention now." Inanaku and the others could tell the king was still hesitant to trust this human so wanted to try to reassure the king himself.

"Your majesty, I will vouch for this man. His methods are questionable but his intentions are pure. We are but a small number of lives he has saved and we are the first among many to be brought back to our homes."

The King stared at Inanaku and could tell he was sincere and decided he would take a chance on this man. "Very well, all of you are invited to the council chambers where we can discuss this privately." The king then turned to one of his guards. "Get those pirates to the prison cells."

"Yes sire!"

* * *

Naruto and the freed fishmen and mermaids informed the King, his sons, and the two ministers of Ryugu Kingdom of what this whole matter was about. To say they were angered by the news was an understatement, especially for the three princes. The King and his ministers knew slavers had targeted their people for a long time so they weren't too surprised by their stories, but it still angered them, especially the Minister of the Right as his own son had endured this suffering. And the princes weren't naive enough to be ignorant about this topic but they were still young and just hearing how their people were treated caused their emotions to run higher than the others.

The former slaves informed the king of everything Naruto had done for them, including healing any ailments they had, as well as removing their marks of the Celestial Dragons. They told him about the food and supplies they were given along with the aid of the Kuja, and the admittedly pleasant, although reluctant trip inside of that giant Sea King that caused the earlier commotion. And they also explained the incident with the New Fishman Pirates as they were making their way back to Fishman Island. Overall they gave Naruto their wholehearted thanks and asked that he be seen as an ally to Fishman Island or at the very least be friendly to him as he said he would continue to free the slaves including their own people.

Naruto just let the people he helped speak for him as he thought it would be best if they did the majority of the explanations as the King and his officers may still be a bit skeptical of him since he was a human. He could tell the princes' admiration of him was growing as they were in a bit of awe when they described his fight with the New Fishman Pirates as they were the most dangerous group of criminals they had at the moment. And hearing how he bested them underwater where the odds should have been against him, painted a picture of just how strong this man could be. The King and the Ministers could also admit it was an impressive feat, but it also told them how dangerous he is and they needed to be extra cautious of him.

The King was truly grateful for Naruto's actions that benefited his people but he was still a king and had to do what was best for his kingdom. "There are no words that can describe my gratitude to you Naruto-san. I deeply thank you for rescuing my people and bringing them back to their homes. But as you are likely not aware, Ryugu Kingdom has a loose affiliation with the World Government. For the sake of my own people's safety I will obviously not be notifying the World Government and the Nobles that their freed slaves have returned home to Fishman Island, but I will have to decree that none of the information said within this room leaves it." said the King, making a noted effort to look at his sons and Ministers. "To that end, I can not openly declare you as a friend of Ryugu Kingdom due to the potential backlash I will receive from the World Nobles. All I can offer is my silent blessing that you continue to liberate my people from their cruel fates."

"But your majesty, you can't just …" The King cut off the mermaid's protest as he raised his hand indicating for silence in which she obeyed, and further explained.

"Please understand that I don't agree with many actions taken by the World Nobles, but the World Government is not an enemy that Ryugu Kingdom can afford to have. Much of our kingdom's prosperity relies on the trade agreements we have with other countries affiliated with the World Government, and if we are shut out from that, then the quality of life for our people will suffer for it. Although the throne of Ryugu Kingdom cannot declare you as our ally, there is nothing that can be done about rumors spread about by my citizens should they have a positive opinion of you." The mermaid and the others who wanted to protest could see the King's reasonings and looked to Naruto with forlorn faces as they wanted him to be recognized as a hero for their people, but after the King's last statement, they held smiles on their faces as it looked like his accomplishments wouldn't have to remain completely hidden.

"Thank you, the support of your people would be appreciated, but you don't have to worry about that. I didn't rescue your people to gain an alliance with anyone, I did it because it was the right thing to do. The Kuja are as much in the same position, as their leader is a Shichibukai under the World Government, so they are also silently giving me their aid. I wouldn't want to create trouble for your kingdom in the first place."

"Thank you, that is very generous of you."

"Don't mention it. But I do have a question for you."

"And you may ask it."

"What the hell is that noise I keep hearing been about? I keep hearing like a loud striking noise. It sounds like a thrown weapon hitting a target. Is your palace under some kind of assault or are your soldiers just training real hard?" That wasn't the only thing he sensed however, as after each reverberation he heard he could feel a pang of fear in someone, most likely the one who is the target.

The King, his sons and the Ministers looked at him with wide eyes since the Hard Shell Tower Shirahoshi is in, is a considerable distance away from the council chambers, so they were shocked he could hear that far. "You can hear that?" said Prince Fukaboshi.

"Yeah, I have a lot of experience with throwing weapons so the sound is pretty distinct for me. If you need help with something, I can see what I can do."

Everyone looked to the King for a reply as his daughter's safety was one of his main concerns and it would be up to him to tell this human about her plight. The King however decided it was too much of a risk and didn't want her to be in any further danger. "You don't have to concern yourself with that, it's just some of our soldiers putting in some extra training."

"… I see." Naruto knew he wasn't being honest with him, but he understood that he is still a stranger here and secrets wouldn't just be divulged to him. But he soon got new information to work with as Isobu had been wandering around Fishman Island and had noticed weapons being thrown at the palace.

' _Naruto, I think I know what is causing that noise, and the fear you can feel. I saw some weapons being thrown from far away beyond the reefs aimed at the palace. Do you want me to look into it?'_

' _Yes please. When you find who is throwing these weapons, capture them and I'll go over there to bring them back. It's probably some more trouble they're dealing with that they don't want to inform me of.'_

' _Okay, I should be finished in a short while as I had already been tracking them since I saw the first weapon thrown.'_

' _Thanks Isobu. Let me know when you're done and I'll be there in a sec.'_

' _Will do.'_

"… maki. Mr. Uzumaki!"

"Huh?"

"Are you alright? You looked to have spaced out for a moment." asked the Minister of the Left.

"Yeah, I'm fine! Nothing to worry about."

"Then, if there is nothing else, I believe our discussion to be done." The King stood up from his seat and gave a deep bow to his people. "To my citizens, there is no amount of forgiveness I can ask of you for my failure to protect you and the suffering you have endured. You have my word that we will strive more than ever to keep you and the kingdom all safe to prevent this from happening again. But I would like to be the first to welcome you all back home, I am sure you are all anticipating to meet with your loved ones once again. If there is any form of aid you need please don't hesitate to let us know, and we will do what we can to help you. You are all free to go. Hoe here will see to it that you all make it to your homes."

The mermaids and fishmen all gave their thanks to the king as his pet whale Hoe allowed the freed slaves to ride on his back to take them into Fishman Island. As they were walking away they once more gave sincere thanks to Naruto for helping them and a few of the mermaids gave him quick hugs and asked him to visit them sometime in Mermaid Cove so they could introduce them to their friends and give him a free meal at the Mermaid Cafe. Naruto was thankful for the thought and told them he would visit them in the future.

The King noticed Naruto stayed behind and believed him to be waiting for payment for bringing in the New Fishman Pirates, and really couldn't blame him for it. "I suppose you wish for payment on the bounties for the pirates you brought in?"

"Huh? Bounty? Naw, you don't have to worry about that, but I should have another delivery for you right about…" Naruto suddenly disappeared from view as Isobu informed him he was finished capturing their target, and moments later he was back in front of the King with another knocked out fishman that he was told by Isobu was called Vander Decken IX. "now."

The King's and his sons' eyes grew wide as they immediately recognized the beaten form of Vander Decken and had so many question as to how this man could just suddenly appear before them and solve some of their worst problems with ease. Naruto could see their questioning looks and answered them before they could give voice to them.

"My buddy Isobu took care of this one. He told me he saw weapons being hurled towards the palace so he went to investigate in my place… Oh yeah, he's the giant turtle that brought us here by the way. Is this guy another criminal you're having trouble with?"

After staring at the beaten pirate for a few moments the King couldn't hide the anger in his voice towards the fishman that has been giving his precious daughter so much grief for many years. "Yes, this… pirate, has caused my family untold amounts of grief for nearly eight years now. There is no amount of thanks that we can give for this." The King and the princes all gave deep bows to Naruto along with their thanks for helping them so much now. "I now must insist that you receive your payment in full for everything you've done for us, it is the only way I know how to repay you for such a debt."

' _Hmm, now that I think about it, I probably will need some funds to gather more supplies when I free more slaves, but I shouldn't need that much to be honest…'_ Naruto thought to himself since he could easily provide basic foods, shelter and medical help himself but may need to buy other supplies. "How about I take the bounty for this guy here and you can keep the bounties for the other fishmen. The New Fishman Pirates attacked me first so I would have beaten them up anyway, but I had Isobu actually hunt this Vander Decken guy down so I'll just take his bounty. The money will help me prepare more when I start freeing more slaves."

Everyone there was surprised by his offer as anyone else would take all the bounties, but the King was a little relieved as that would have been a lot of money to be given all at once. "Are you sure of this?"

"Yeah, you don't need to worry about it. I wasn't really here to deliver bounties in the first place. So it's no big deal."

"You are a strange man."

"Hahaha! Yeah, I've heard that before. I say it's better than being normal."

"Haha, I rather like that outlook." The King then gave one of his soldiers a note to have the treasurer gather the funds for the bounty. As a few more soldiers were directed to take Decken away with instructions to have both his hands tightly covered and secured so he couldn't cause them any more trouble. After several minutes passed two more soldiers came back with a chest full of Berries for Naruto to take. "This is yours, five-hundred and forty million berries."

"Wow, his bounty was that high?"

"No, Decken was a personal enemy of my family and because of all you've done for us today I have doubled the bounty and taken half of the money from my family's private coffers. Think of this as my own way of supporting your mission of freeing more slaves."

"I appreciate that, I'll be sure to put it to good use. I'll be back soon to bring more of your people home." With that, Naruto gave the King and his sons a small salute as he put a hand on the chest and disappeared in a yellow flash.

"I've never seen a human like that before father." said Prince Fukaboshi.

"Nor have I son. You three will learn there are all sorts of different people in the world." said the King to his sons as they all nodded their heads to their father's advice.

"King Neptune, can we really trust this human?" asked the Minister of the Left.

"… I believe Otohime would have trusted him, so I will as well. But I believe it to be best if we keep an eye out for that one."

""Yes father/sire.""

* * *

Naruto had been very busy in his short time in this new world. After getting the first group of rescued slaves out of Mariejois, and after returning the fishman and mermaids to their homes; he had to focus on returning the rest of the freed slaves to their own homes. The biggest problem was that their home countries reached all across the Grand Line and out into the Four Blues.

Naruto and the Biju had discussed their strategy at length and came up with a solution that wouldn't leave Naruto exhausting himself by just spamming clones to travel all around the world. Since the Biju were already revealed during the battle at Enies Lobby, there was no reason for them to remain hidden anymore. So now the Biju would take some of the reigns and work independently to scour the worlds oceans and leaving Hiraishin markers on every island they come across regardless if they were a destination they needed to be at. So to do this, Naruto created eight more giant ships that would be under the control of each Biju.

Bounties for the Biju had also been made by the government, but they were all grouped together since it was a first for what they believed to be unknown, intelligent animals to be given a bounty. Their poster came in the form of a wide photo of all of them as they sat on the ocean with a collective bounty of nine-hundred million Berries, one-hundred million for each, and also the same total amount for Naruto. It was a bit ironic that they got one of their titles correct as they simply labeled them as the 'Tailed Beasts,' since they believed their tails held some significance as they could clearly see that they each held a different number of them which they found odd.

Once Naruto and the Biju figured out their plans, he had to reveal the Biju to the rest of the former slaves of what was going to happen. Naruto first explained that he could not take them to their homes personally as he still had to focus on infiltrating and gathering information in Mariejois in order to safely continue freeing the other slaves still there. Naruto then released the Biju once again but this time taking their full forms like Isobu had done before and he had to once again reassure everyone that they weren't a danger to them.

He introduced everyone to the Biju and explained to them that they would each be responsible for their own ship and taking them to their homes while providing protection from all the seas dangers. But in order to remain inconspicuous, they forcibly reigned in their chakra and took smaller forms, only coming up to about Naruto's thigh, and if they needed to release more chakra to increase their size and fight off any danger, they could do so at will. Their smaller forms definitely eased some of the tension and many of the women even thought they were cute and began arguing over who they wanted to sail under.

When everyone came to terms with what was going to happen, they immediately began preparing the ships with supplies and dividing up the people by which direction they needed to head towards in order to reach their homes, as all nine ships would sail in a different direction. So in less than a week after they were freed, the former slaves and the Biju had been slowly sailing the seas to reach as many countries as they could find.

While the others were out at sea, Naruto had his own work to do to make sure he could safely extract the other slaves under the Celestial Dragons.

* * *

Soon after the Biju took sail, Naruto was gathering all the intelligence that he could while using his stealth to stay hidden within Mariejois. It was an overall easy task initially, except for the few androids that were dispatched to help with security for the Celestial Dragons. These androids were all the same that were modeled after a very large man that he overheard were called Pacifistas. The trouble came from their high level sensors that could detect his heat signature when he used his camouflage, so he had one close call but was able to evade detection since then. Not taking any chances, security was unfortunately upped due to information given by Rob Lucci who had remembered Naruto somehow evaded visual detection through some unknown means. So the government dispatched more of the androids to provide extra security.

Mariejois was much bigger than Naruto anticipated as he learned there were nineteen families that comprised the Celestial Dragons, and each had their own mansion with their own slaves within. It was hard for him to ignore everything around him as he wanted to get everyone out quickly and safely, but he couldn't just run amok causing a scene. He also had to do this alone as any clone he makes would just be a higher risk he would take of getting caught. He had a plan but he would have to get everyone out all at once, so he had to make sure not to overlook anyone by mistake. He would have to search high and low to make sure to find any hidden areas other slaves might be kept in.

The safety of the slaves was his main concern but it wasn't his only objective. The Celestial Dragons had to be punished. Just rescuing these unfortunate people wouldn't be enough, and it wouldn't really change anything in the end. The Celestial Dragons would just demand others to take their place. He didn't like where his thoughts were taking him, but he felt an example had to be made. The Celestial Dragons were arrogant enough to think of themselves as untouchable, but they were far from it. And he would have to be the one to show them that.

Naruto also became aware that the Celestial Dragons weren't the only nobles to have taken up slavery. Other lesser nobles were known to take in slaves, but just not to the extent of the Celestial Dragons; they would have to be taken care of as well eventually. But another group he was more interested in were the actual slavers themselves. The men or women who were kidnapping these people to be sold like cattle had to answer for their crimes as well. It was fortunate that these people took their jobs seriously as documents were made for their sales and would have the name of the various groups of slavers that sold them to auction houses or directly to nobles. He managed to find these documents in one mansion but he would have to search the others for their own documents. It was a lot of work he had to do that would take several days to look into thoroughly.

Another major issue he had was that he also had to time this mass exodus just right. He felt the best time to get everyone out the safest way possible would have to be when the government was at its most vulnerable. Fortunately, it looked like the upcoming war with the Whitebeard Pirates would be the greatest distraction he could hope for. He had a plan in mind that he would have to expand upon, but he would have to prepare himself for the inevitable backlash that would come afterwards.

* * *

Almost two weeks passed since the Enies Lobby incident and the break in at Mariejois. The World Government had covered up the liberation of the slaves from the Holy Land to the public, but they had to deal with some very upset Celestial Dragons. The family that had their slaves taken demanded the capture of the thief for steeling their property. This family of Celestial Dragons had to endure the ridicule of their peers and felt utterly humiliated from losing all their slaves.

It was a cruel competition among the World Nobles to see who could maintain the most slaves without appearing overly flamboyant, less they be ridiculed for being too pompous among their own. For the World Nobles, everyone not a Celestial Dragon was beneath them so it didn't matter what lesser beings thought about them, but among equals it was very important to have the upper hand in _all_ things. So this family wanted the perpetrator alive so they could punish, which essentially meant torture, and eventually kill the one with the audacity to make a mockery of them.

Because of this, the World Government had no choice but to change Naruto's bounty to read 'Alive Only,' instead of 'Dead or Alive,' to satisfy the family of Celestial Dragons. The sudden change had many people wondering why the government wanted him alive, so there was much speculation about this new criminal among the world. It was very rare for a bounty to be brought in alive, which would make his capture that much more difficult. It would be much easier to just kill this up and coming criminal and be done with it, but instead they would have to waste resources on capturing a man they know that could go toe to toe with an Admiral.

This development put a lot of unneeded pressure on the government because there was a lot of other things they had to deal with; the most pressing of which were the mounting tensions between the World Government and the Whitebeard Pirates, due to the recent capture of Fire Fist Ace by the new Shichibukai Blackbeard. So trying to capture a man who could defeat Aokiji and walk away and _still_ cause other problems for them was not going to prove easy. They could ill afford to spread their forces thin at this moment as they needed all the manpower they could get, knowing a war was coming.

The government was also starting to get both anxious and relieved because they have yet to receive any new information on this supposed 'sage's' whereabouts. He has been suspiciously absent since his first crime spree, and from what Aokiji reported, it sounded like he had a vendetta against the World Government. So they expected this new criminal to cause more mayhem relatively quickly, but were actually thankful that he hadn't during this period.

The past couple of weeks the Celestial Dragons were getting impatient with the lack of progress in capturing their culprit so they were steadily breathing down the Marines' necks to produce results. But with the looming war with the Whitebeard Pirates coming, once Ace's execution date was decided, hunting for Uzumaki Naruto was not a priority at this time. So they would have to endure the complaints of the World Nobles until the war was over and then they could fully commit to finding their perpetrator.

* * *

Naruto had just about completed his preparations for the liberation of all the slaves within Mariejois. He was just going through a mental checklist to make sure everything would be ready when he overheard that the head of one of the families of Celestial Dragons was going to make a trip to Grove One of Sabaody Archipelago to what they called the Human Auctioning House to buy more slaves to replace the ones that were stolen from them. Saint Roswald was slowly replacing his slaves that were stolen but he was going to make a direct trip to the auction along with his son and daughter so they could pick out their own slaves as well.

Naruto had seen the name of the auction house on some documents which is where the majority of the slave trade circulated around and was going to eventually make a trip there. So he decided that rather than look for the place himself, he would just let the nobles lead him there directly. Naruto stayed hidden and followed the nobles on their private ship to Sabaody Archipelago as they took an entourage of security guards and a few of their slaves to serve them along the way.

Naruto had to unfortunately hold himself back from immediately intervening against their treatment of their slaves and others around them, as they showed absolutely no remorse for attacking anyone who they believed to disrespect them. They already left a few bodies behind them in their wake but Naruto was there to heal their victims once they were out of sight so as to not allow them to catch on that they were being followed.

He had to once again witness the mistreatment of more people as Saint Charlos, who separated from his father and sister, had his guards grab a woman off the street that he wanted to make another of his wives, as her fiance begged for her release. He once again mercilessly shot the man without a care and proceeded to have his guards drag the woman along with them. It was at this time that Naruto noticed a familiar swordsman with a bottle of booze, casually walking down the road while everyone else around looked on in shock that he wasn't getting out of the way or bowing in deference to the World Noble. Once the Celestial Dragon also caught sight of him, he was also staring in shock for the man's brazen disrespect, then he said something that pushed the noble over the edge when he stopped in front of him with a blank stare.

"What, you need me to give you directions or something?" Everyone around gasped in shock at the man's idiocy while Naruto just face palmed, but couldn't really blame him if he didn't know who the Celestial Dragons were.

Without thinking, Saint Charlos brought his gun up and fired two shots aiming to kill the man, while said swordsman started rushing in and avoiding the bullets with the intent to cut him in half. Naruto was about to interfere but a pink haired little girl beat him to it as she flung herself at Zoro, taking him to the ground while covering him in tomato juice to imitate blood. The girl began crying over her 'dead brother' in an obvious ploy to fool the noble that worked relatively well as he continued on his way believing the man to be dead.

The little girl who suddenly turned into a grown woman then began berating Zoro for being an idiot and almost getting them all killed. Naruto chose this moment to go to the downed man who was shot that was nearby Zoro and spoke to the swordsman while he healed him.

"Yo Zoro, fancy seeing you here. The rest of your crew must be here too huh?"

"What?!" A surprised Zoro turned around, vaguely recognizing the voice until he saw Naruto's face. "It's you! How the hell did you get here?!"

"That's not nice. No hello or good afternoon! I thought we were friends after all the help I gave you and your crew."

"Oh… Yeah. Sorry I guess. But what are you doing here?" They were interrupted by the sudden cry of one of Jewelry Bonnie's crew.

"C-c-c-captain! I-i-i-i-i-it's..."

"What?! Spit it out already!"

"It's the Ungodly Sage! UZUMAKI NARUTO!"

Gasps were heard all around as Naruto's name became known throughout the Grand Line as the highest and most recent bounty of the Twelve Supernovas. The Marines didn't want another revolutionary to be known about by the people, as his deeds regarding the slaves were covered up, so they just lumped him in as another pirate due to his involvement at Enies Lobby. So his name now held a lot of weight among pirates everywhere, even though the government knows he really isn't a pirate. People all around either ran in fear once they heard his name or just stood in shock at seeing someone who should be one of the most dangerous people on the Grand Line seemingly healing a random stranger. He soon sat the man up to get his bearings after he finished while reassuring him that he'll get his fiance back.

As Naruto stood up and turned around he noticed that several other Supernovas were in the area to witness Zoro nearly killing a World Noble as they all felt they were extremely lucky Bonnie interfered when she did. He noticed Basil Hawkins, Scratchmen Apoo, Capone Bege, and Urouge looking on in interest. It was unfortunate that Naruto would have to dash their hopes of an Admiral free day.

"Huh? _You're_ Uzumaki Naruto?"

"That's right. And you're Jewelry Bonnie right? I've seen your bounty along with the rest of our fellow Supernovas. That's a pretty unique ability you have."

"Yeah, what of it?!"

"Nothing really, just thought it was neat."

"Oi! You never answered my question. What are you doing here?" asked Zoro.

"I'm just letting some dragons lead me down a rabbit hole."

"What?! Are you a freaking idiot too?! You're _following_ the Celestial Dragons!" exclaimed Bonnie.

"That's right."

"Uh, then shouldn't you be following that one right now." said Zoro while Bonnie kept yelling in the background at how much of an idiot both men were.

"Nah it's alright, I got a clone following some others too and they're all gonna meet up at the same place eventually, but I won't lose track of that one either, he's pretty easy to find."

"Are you two even listening to me! You know even pirates have their own unspoken laws too right?! Do you know how much trouble you're gonna cause everyone here?!"

"Sorry to break it to you sweety, but I'm not really a pirate. Any of your unspoken laws don't apply to me. So to you and any other Supernovas or regular pirates around here, I'm gonna tell you this now! If you really don't want to run into an Admiral today, I suggest you hide as best you can or pack up and get the hell out of here! Because I have some business with the place the Celestial Dragons are leading me to that I'm sure the government won't really appreciate! Especially with the World Nobles close by! So you all have some time before shit starts hitting the fan since I have no idea where this place is!"

"Are you serious?!"

"Serious as a Buster Call."

"What kind of idiot causes trouble that will force out an Admiral?!"

"Well I beat one pretty easily already, how hard can another one be?" Everyone around was openly gaping at him in shock, as word of a defeated Admiral would be _huge_ , but the government apparently covered that up too as no one there except the Straw Hat Pirates knew anything about it. "Well anyway, I gotta go! I'm sure that noble is still leaving bodies behind that I should tend to. See ya later Zoro! Say hi to your crew for me!" Naruto was suddenly gone from the area as he went to catch up with Saint Charlos and clean up any mess he left behind.

"See ya, I guess."

"Is that guy for real?!"

Everyone around, especially the Supernovas, noticed Zoro's demeanor suddenly turn serious at Bonnie's question. "There's a reason why that guy's bounty is so high, especially for his _first_ bounty."

"Yeah, and why's that? All the information they gave about that man was that he was involved in the Enies Lobby incident along with you and your crew. He doesn't really look like much anyway. And what kind of criminal goes around helping people?" Everyone around was listening more closely now, trying to get any more information on this 'Ungodly Sage.'

"He wasn't lying. If he says he's gonna do something, I have no doubt that he will. The day we met him he completely destroyed one of the Gates of Justice by himself, he shut down a Buster Call with the help of those Tailed Beasts that have a collective bounty as high as his own, and he beat Aokiji single-handedly and walked away nearly unscratched. That man is a monster on a completely different level than any of us. Things like conquering the Grand Line or finding One Piece don't matter to him. His enemy is the World Government itself, and he's not afraid to fight them alone… Shit, now I have to find my crew and tell them we should get the hell outta here. The rest of you should probably do the same."

Zoro then ran off to find his crew and warn them of the coming danger Naruto was so intent on bringing. The other Supernovas around there were still just trying to process what Roronoa just finished telling them.

"What should we do captain? If what Pirate Hunter just said is true, an Admiral will be making his way here soon." asked one of Capone's men.

"Tch. If that sage or whatever he is, is really stupid enough to cause trouble around a Celestial Dragon, I guess we have no choice but to retreat and wait to get our ship coated until things die down." Bege and his crew soon moved to depart Sabaody Archipelago to avoid any run ins with the government.

In another area, the crew of Basil Hawkins noticed their captain was staring in shock at his tarot cards in front of him as he frantically tried to do another reading, hoping he was wrong. His crew looked on in concern since it was very rare for their captain to show any kind of emotion so they were all asking him what is wrong, until after several moments he finally spoke in a shaky voice.

"N-no matter how many times I read it. That man… will bring death to the world." His crew were rightfully shocked by his words as that was the most ominous reading they have heard from him, so they were starting to panic a bit. There are many ways to interpret tarot cards and they hoped that reading wasn't as literal as it sounded.

"What a pain, this is gonna set us back longer than I would have wanted." said Scratchmen Apoo.

"Do you believe what Roronoa said is true captain?"

"You don't get a bounty of nine-hundred million without reason. If Uzumaki really did do all those things, he certainly earned his bounty. And if he actually defeated an Admiral, it makes you think about what else he could have done that the government is covering up." The rest of the On Air Pirates took their captains words to heart as they too made to retreat from the archipelago.

"The 'Ungodly Sage' huh? A bounty so high it puts all us other rookies to shame. I wonder why the Government would want him alive if he's really such a monster?" said Urouge.

"Should we retreat as well Captain Urouge?"

"Yes, we'll come back another day. We can't afford to run into an Admiral now." Urouge and the Fallen Monk Pirates also made their way out of the area and back to their ship to get away from a potential disaster.

"What should we do Captain Bonnie?"

"Tch, goddammit! I'm still hungry! (sigh) Roronoa seems too stupid to be a liar. And that Uzumaki is a crazy bastard for tailing the World Nobles. Get all our supplies back to the ship and get ready to set sail! We're leaving for now."

""Yes Captain!""

Many other pirates of lesser renown also started frantically retreating as a panic set in all around the area. Many overheard what Naruto said as well as the conversations of the Supernovas and felt they should take heed of their words. Everybody just wanted to get away from the World Nobles as fast as possible. If any of them were hurt in any way, the government would come crashing down hard on any and everyone in the area to protect them.


End file.
